5C's Que Pasa

Saturday morning after just a few hours of sleep it was time to get ready for another full day of activity.  We had been up a full 21 hours and 5.5 hours was just not enough shut eye.  We loaded up the car with the next batch of gifts and fought a bitter cold wind that whipped right through us.  We had a few errands to do on the way to see Mommio.

The big stop was picking up all these balloons.  They are all tied together and are in three bunches.  On the floor is our first gift bag of the day.  You can see the new comforter on the bed we had given her the day prior.  Do you know how hard it is to find one in black and red?

She was very inspired with the balloons.  The third large balloon on the right has a light behind it which is why it is so pale compared to the others.  I made a point of keeping my wardrobe in the black range and used jewellery that I knew she would like.  The entire point of our visit was to make her happy.

It took over an hour for her to very slowly open each gift we placed on her lap.  I had to finally take over the smoothing of the gift wrap as she needed to save it just in case she might need it and it took her forever to deal with it.  We were there only for three days 🙂

This is a gold handbag.  Next to black and red, gold is her next favorite colour.

I had a $10.00 coupon for our local dollar store so I bought her some fun things.  She loved the boa, the glasses and the extra red beads I had picked up to add a bit of fun to the occasion.  You can see that she has no view outside her window.

As you can see she had a great time.  I made it a point to pack my margarita glasses to make her laugh even more. These are the pearls that broke.

She loved the red sequined and beaded tiny red box which I had picked up for $4.00 at the dollar store.  Another small item I had picked up were a few word find it puzzle books in large print.  She actually stopped and asked us why would we ever think to give her those.  I replied that we knew that she really enjoyed doing the puzzles.  She said that no one else had ever done something like that for her.  It was simple, we know her and what makes her happy.  The necklace and pearl style bracelet were also gifts.

Shortly after the gift opening we took her for a drive and out for lunch.  Just before we left I was helping her up and as I bent down I broke my pearl necklace, they got caught on the walker handle and snapped:-(   Colin is a great guy and has managed to repair it for me 😀  While we were out we got caught in the wind and the rain.  After lunch we went shopping and she walked and walked, her eyes were taking everything in.  The Bay had their Christmas decorations up and she loved the color and sparkle.  She loves sparkle, the more the better.  She was thrilled to find her favorite pantyhose on sale.  Regular $9.50 on sale for $2.99 a pair.  There were only nine in her size and we got them all.   After the shopping we came back to her room for some down time.  I was more worn out than she was.  I did 7600 steps on the Friday and 14,057 on the Saturday 😯   She did at least half of those.  The sad news is that we realized that this would probably be the last time she would be out of her building until Colin returns to see her in the spring.

After the shopping we gave her a bag of fun toys.  She had actually given them to us and our girls over the years.  She did not remember that they were hers although she said that she used to have something similar only it was smaller.  Fortunately we had these to give her as what she had left at her home disappeared  along with her other things.  We gave her Willie with her birthday gifts earlier in the day.

This guy sings and dances ‘The Gambler’ by Kenny Rogers but Willie Nelson also sang it so she calls him Willie.  Click here for the the song.

This guy plays his guitar and sings Feliz Navidad.  Note the new hair style.  The falling snow wet her hair so she changed her look when we came back to her room for a bit.

This doggie as she calls him sings and moves his ears into all kind of contortions.  The ear movement is beyond amazing, I should  have taken a video.  This was her favorite.  The next day she kept pushing his paw so everyone who came in could see him move.

She named this guy Joe and he does some cool break dance moves and has the dreamiest eyes.  She talks to then all and that is why we gave these to her as we knew it would keep her happy when we were gone to have them to play with.

The green chocolate bear never got a name but he does some very neat dance moves. Willie was there Saturday but he and his chair had been moved by the time we got there on Sunday.  She loves to move things around.  I hated the big white fan in the corner so I covered it up with the boa, beads and glasses.

So off we went for yet another late dinner, this time to the Lobster House, her favorite restaurant.  The perfect place for her official birthday dinner.  She totally surprised us by asking for a Bud Light, saying that she hadn’t has one in a long time.  What a fun lady!

We had a lot of laughs during the time we spent with her and created some special memories.

I think we got her back to her room just about 10PM.  Another great very full day.  I think we were up 17.5 hours.  No wonder I am still yawning a few days later back here at home.

We were surprised to find her sitting in the dining room on Sunday, waiting for lunch, on our last day.  She seemed to have forgotten that we were coming, in fact she was somewhat confused and had forgotten that she had had breakfast earlier.  She was soon back in full form.  I think she was tired from all the exercise she had been getting and that confused her somewhat.  Her mind might have been fatigued but her body was moving much more energetically than when we had arrived.  Amazing what just a we bit of physical activity can accomplish.

Sunday was the last of our gift bags.  She truly was overwhelmed saying that she never got Christmas gifts.

She got red sparkly bows hung everywhere, a Christmas door handle thingy with bells,that every time she entered her bathroom they jingled.  Oh yes, also the sitting Santa who she named Nick, the sparkly Christmas tree with red, white and silver accents, vases with red sparkly poinsettias and a snowman Christmas globe complete with falling snow when shaken among other things.

A very happy room.

So much to look at, so much colour and so much warmth.  Under the clock are a Christmas penguin with Colin’s face in it and a Rudolph with my face in it, separated by you guessed it, a red sparkly bow 🙂  We also added two more cork boards for a total of four, full of photos and memories.

After the Christmas gifts and another practice walk to the finance office we headed off to our final meal of this special time together.  We discussed what a great time it had been and went over all the highlights.  As a special surprise we had been taking photos of the entire weekend celebration and had had them printed.  We even stopped at Walmart to get instant photos printed of the Christmas gift opening that morning.  So once we ordered our meal Colin started to show her the prints and she went ballistic.  All Mommio could focus on was her hair and how she looked, which she hated.  She could not see around her hair and recall the lovely moments that has transpired over the past few days.  She wanted to rip up the photos so we put then away and focused on her hair.  She is very proud and looking the very best means everything to her.

She had had a perm within the last 2 weeks but her hair was never colored and it was not attractive as it was a few different shades including a white gray. She wanted to have it coloured asap.  We found a photo that she likes of her hair colour and she was going to take that down with her to the in house hairdressing salon.  I reminded her that she could go get money and that would pay for her colour.  Meanwhile back at her room Colin put up the photos as the two of us chatted about her hair.  We can only hope that the photos are still up there as we had hoped that she would look at them and remember her good times with us once we had left.

It was very sad to leave her, as at her age we have no idea if we will ever see her again.  We left knowing that we had given her everything that we could to improve her life in that “room”.  Once at the airport I had a very very expensive glass of wine but I really needed to relax so I cared not that I could have purchased an entire bottle for the same price.  By now it was snowing seriously to the point that we had to be deiced before take off.  It was quite the weekend.

As far as we know neither of the brothers called her on her birthday and we know that they did not visit.  It did bother her a great deal.  One brother did deliver a card to her the day before we arrived.  I know that they do check my blog from time to time and I hope that they read about the celebration we had with her.

The first day and a bit after we left her, she was on cloud nine rearranging all her new things.  Then she crashed.  She went to the finance office and they would not give her the money she asked for, she did not have enough to get her hair done.  I have been trying for three full days with call after call to get through to the finance office to no avail.   Meanwhile I have made an appointment for her to get her hair done next week ( one has to book 2 weeks in advance !!) and the money has been looked after.  She went from being ecstatic to the depths of despair.  Both of our hearts were crushed.  We are doing the best we can to prop her up.  All I can say is that it is going to be a very long winter for her.