So I'm noticing some changes in my dad.  He seems more tired all the time. He sometimes seems like it is hard for him to keep his eyes open and often he has one eye open and one eye closed. He doesn't talk as much and he sometimes doesn't answer questions. He seems to be having a harder time swallowing food and he takes forever to eat. None of this stuff is really new, but it seems to be happening more often. It used to be that he would have a bad day and then the next day he would be fine and all perky and his usual self. Now it's starting to seem like the bad days are outnumbering the good. I am worried about him.

On a lighter note, dad's new caregiver is awesome and both Mom and Dad just love him. His name is Efrim. He is 27 from Somalia. He has a long history and has experienced more in his 27 years than most people will in their whole lives. He came to this country to study and wants to become a pharmacist. He and Dad have hit it off royally. Dad crys when he talks about him he loves him so much :) Efrim has been taking Dad on lots of walks and making sure he gets out in the sunshine (when we have it) I look forward to getting to know him better.

Mom is doing well in her new job at Safeway. She is so excited about it. She says she's doing great in training but every time she makes a mistake she says "shit!"  Her first shift on her own is this week and she said the thing she's most nervous about is if she's going to be able to not swear :) good luck mom ;)

Mom and Dad had a great visit with the Clows who came for a couple days from California. They all came to my house for dinner the first night. I really enjoyed seeing them as well. Here are a couple pics from our fun night.

Hope everyone is enjoying the sun today!!
Love, Angie

Hi All-

First things first... mom finally got rid of Nancy #2! I know Angie talked a bit about our frustrations with her last week. She just was not at all assertive and as nice as she was it just was in no way the right fit! Dad now has a young guy care giver. Sounds like he is around 27 or so, so much more his speed! Dad is really enjoying him so far and it sounds like he is much more open to going on walks and getting dad out of the apartment! They also have a younger girl coming on Saturdays for a few hours and she is unreal with the laundry and cleaning stuff. Dad was extremely impressed with how quickly she was able to get a few loads done and change the sheets on both beds! HA!

So Saturday night I let my mom have the night off so she could go to a birthday party for one of her old coworkers. I wasn't able to go down on Friday so I was glad to have a little time with dad. I went down around 6:30 and he was glued to the TV watching the basketball game. I had brought him some dinner so we moved to the table and I helped him eat and he literally just stared at the TV. After dinner he wanted to go to the store and get ice cream. At this point it is about 8:15 and I was fine walking up to the store but wanted to get there and back before dark. Dad was dilly dallying around. Thinking he was capable of doing all these things he used to be able to do... quickly close the windows, turn off the tv, shut off all the lights, go to the bathroom. All really simple things but takes him SO MUCH longer! When I finally got him in his chair and out the door we quickly made our way to Safeway. Its only a few blocks away so not a big deal. When we got there he quickly grabbed his vanilla ice cream and then wanted bars of some sort... after fighting with me about the fact that they were currently out of root beer flavored popsicles and staring at the chocolate bars he finally settled on the Magnum dark chocolate. Anyway... we went to check out and the line was SO long and the sun was going down rapidly... I finally paid and dad was trying to say something to me as we were walking out. I finally realized that he wanted to go "look at the alcohol" now that you can buy it anywhere he wanted to check it out. I said dad I'm not waiting in that line again and he assured me that he just wanted to look... mean daughter that I am told him its just like the liquor store... its getting dark we're going home! So I pushed him quickly back home and then sure enough as we were in the middle of the street he decides he wants to push me. I had to push him down so I could get us out of the street and up the hill and then I let him push me for a block and around their garage. As I was getting the key to go back in their building I dropped a dime out of my pocket and sure enough dad leaned down to get it and then was completely frozen. He was still holding onto the wheelchair and I was halfway in it. There wasn't a lot I could do aside from make him sit himself down and then we started over! He just doesn't understand that he can't do things like that and that in the grand scheme of things that dime isn't really that important!

So needless to say when we finally got into their apartment I was wiped out and irritated! We have been told that this is part of the disease they think they are still perfectly capable of daily things. Its hard to say "give it up dad" or discourage him since it is good that he still wants to push himself, but at this point he is really putting himself in danger. Even when we got into the apartment, his first focus was not to sit down it was to turn on the tv and he was barely standing but wouldn't focus on anything but getting the TV on.  For the most part he seems like he is ok but his stares are getting a lot longer and he can be mute for very long periods of time. On Thursday night their friends the Clows were in town and Angie had them all over. Angie said dad didn't say one word the entire night. I think he has some important doctor appointments coming up so hopefully we'll have a little more info! I'll let Angie talk more about their visit with the Clows. All I got out of dad was that it was really great and he was proud of himself because he pushed Mrs. Clow for about 3 blocks in the wheelchair :)

It's been a while!

Hi it's Angie.
Sorry people! I haven't been very good about keeping up with this lately!

Lisa talked about our wonderful visit with Mike and Pat Charles. They are great long time friends from California and it was so nice to have them here! They were a huge help and kind of had a wild visit with our family!
   After having a great time at dinner at Lisa and Josh's house, We got a call the next day that Mom was in the hospital as she was feeling dizzy and faint after her job interview. She was taken to Group Health and they did a heart scan and checked her out. Thankfully everything was fine with her heart. (She does have a heart murmur that she has had for years which is scary) She was dehydrated and hadn't eaten anything that day.  The doc gave her a little scolding about taking better care of herself and they kept her overnight for observation.  Meanwhile the Charles were here and they made a beautiful dinner for Mom and Dad but I got to enjoy it instead of Mom as I went over and stayed the night with Dad while Mom was in the hospital.  She got home the next morning and she and Dad took it easy all day and then had dinner again with Mike and Pat.
Pat called me after they left and told me that Mom had a long talk with her about some of her frustrations with Nancy 2.  Pat also had concerns after spending the day there. We have all been a little frustrated with Nancy 2 and have been trying to see about switching to a different caregiver that has been there before as a substitute.  Nancy 2 is VERY picky about what she is willing to do and there always seems to be some sort of scheduling misunderstanding with her. She also asks 40 bazillion questions about things that have nothing to do with why she is there. I have been annoyed several times as she asks me every time I am there the same questions...did you come from Bremerton this time? oh.. Did you have to take a ferry? oh..How long is the ferry ride? oh...is your husband with you? Do you have the dogs in the car? OMG LADY!!! I've been here 10 minutes already and I haven't even said hello to my parents yet!!! She is really sweet and I do like her but sometimes I just can't muster the patience to answer the same questions every time I go over there. Mom feels the same frustrations times 10. She is help provided by Providence Elder Place and we love them in general and are so grateful!! but just need to tweak a couple things as far as in home care giving goes in order to help relieve Mom. Mom also needs to really stand up for herself too and Dad needs to cut her some slack sometimes! We have had a couple comments from family and friends who have witnessed his, how do I say, tendency to be a little controlling, often about things that are not so important unless you are Mike Kissler :)
On Memorial Day I stopped by and surprised them after attending a friends BBQ up the hill. I brought them leftovers of the truthfully kind of awful dessert I made for the BBQ. Dad loved it anyway :) but told me I needed to use cake mix made with Jello next time and it would be so much better. He's controlling but he usually knows what he's talking about (usually) and I have learned so much from him.
We are looking forward to the Clows coming from California this coming weekend! I am especially as I used to spend a week or two every other summer at their house when I was growing up!  They have two kids, a daughter my age, Michelle (who would come to our house the summers I was not at their house), and her older brother Jon, who were often the highlight of my summer :)


A couple cute pictures from Mother's day...

Latest Update!

So a lot has happened since I last wrote! I was actually out of town most of last week, but I know my parents went to a fun BBQ with Johnny, they had friends in town early on in the week and I a few visits with Angie! I'll let everyone else talk about their times :) I did ask dad about the BBQ he went to with Johnny. It was a graduation party for one of his friends. Dad said it was a lot of fun and he got a big grin on his face when he told me "the kids made him get up and play beer pong!" he was even happier when I asked how'd you do? "I won a round!" - same old mike!

Mom and dad with Johnny's friends!

Last Monday before Josh and I headed out of town, we hosted the family, and mom and dads friends Mike and Pat Charles at our house. We had a great time!!! WAY too much food, good wine and a lot of laughs! Unfortunately because Josh and I were leaving the next day we had to cut the evening shorter then I would have liked, but we are looking forward to seeing the Charles's again in July! (They live in California)

In other exciting news, Mom got a job! She is working at Safeway on Queen Anne! I think it will be great for her! A perfect distraction and chance for her to get out of the house! So this morning I went over to re-leave her so she could head to work. Dad had apparently had a restless night and had been ready to go since 8am. He was exhausted though! He really wanted to go see his sister Kimmy who just broke her hip :( Which I was more than happy to do, but then he said he was just too wiped :( So I made him some breakfast and then we went on a walk. I tried to make poached eggs like Angie does for dad and he was just laughing at my attempts but they were edible :) Then we went on a nice long walk! Dad stopped and touched every single flower and told me what kind they all were.  Their neighborhood looks beautiful right now with all the flowers in full bloom! Dad pushed me in the chair for about 3 blocks which made me a little nervous since he was so tired, but he said it felt really good to walk.

All and all great day! Their friends the Clows (also from California) are coming into town next week! And Mom is taking dad to see Brandi Carlile at Easy Street records on Tuesday night so hopefully we'll get to see some pics from that! They are both really excited :)

Dinner with the Charles's

Mike and I talking all about wine!