Lots of happenings
Well, we've had a whole slew of changes in the past month. So, in no particular order of relevance or occurrence:
-Mom is a new assisted living facility. There was nothing wrong with the old place, she wasn't desperately unhappy, they weren't hurting her, or jacking up the cost of living or anything like that, it had simply served its purpose. When this whole thing began, one of our priorities (my own priority and the one I pushed every time we discussed the matter, truth be told) was to minimize the upheaval of leaving the house by keeping Mom in the same neighborhood so that she could still attend her church and see her friends. And for awhile she did just that. She kept going to choir practice, went to weekly mass, had brunch with everyone, and even went on outings with various people.
Then she started getting headaches. Multiple ones each week, bad enough that my siblings and I all received at least one phone call or voice message with our mother on the verge of tears telling us that her head hurt. She's on medication number three now (maybe four) in trying to treat and prevent the damn things. They seem to have improved, but that's another story. With all the pain, Mom didn't want to go to church or choir practice. In started as sporadic absences and then she just stopped altogether because she never knew if she was going to feel good. She start taking communion from a volunteer that visited weekly and she seemed content.
From the start we knew that the closer you got to Dallas, the more options you had in facilities and the cheaper the cost due to competition. We also knew that there was a place right across the street from Damon's house. He toured the place and found that there was an open room so he and I took Mom out to lunch one day to discuss the possibility of moving. She was interested so we scheduled a time for the three of us to have lunch with the director and to have a tour. Everyone liked it so deposits were made and we got ready to do some heavy lifting. We were a bit delayed with all the snow and ice, but we finally made it happen last week and Mom spent her first night there on Friday.
Overall, Mom seems happy about the change. She says that Esperanza has better coffee than Sterling House. I'm happy about the change too. Instead of driving down the highway for half an hour to pick her up, I can just zip across town and be there in about ten minutes. Damon and the kiddos can walk over to see her once the weather is nicer (which hopefully won't be much longer) and they're planning to have her over for dinner at least once a week. Her expenses are now down by $900+ per month. This place is literally about 20% cheaper and they have TONS more activities including recurring weekly events, a monthly restaurant outing paid for by Esperanza and not out-of-pocket, worship services, animal visits from a local no-kill shelter, and, the thing that makes me squee the most, they have about a half dozen little brown rabbits that live in the courtyard. They even have pellets available so the residents can go out and feed the bunnies.
There's so much attention to detail and little things just make you stand back and say "Wow, someone really cared and really thought this through." They maintain memory books for the residents with pictures and such and give it to the resident as a keepsake should they ever move away or to the family when their loved one passes away. They have their own "Make a Wish" program. One resident wanted to go on a date so they arranged for some cute young man (the nephew of a staff member) to bring her flowers and take her out to dinner. Another resident writes short stories so they gathered up some of his works, had them bound, and then held a book signing for him and gave all the residents a copy of his book. And all of it is done at Esperanza's own expense. I have high hopes for this place.
-I have a job now! Not quite a month ago I got in touch with a firm that does nothing but job placements for college grads looking to get a foot in the door on their way to a new career. Put in an application, submitted my resume, and about two weeks later got a phone call. The recruiter had a potential job that he thought I'd be suited for and wanted to meet me in person, talk about my past experience, and just get to know me as a person instead of a resume. He liked what I had to say so he sent me information along to the hiring company and once we finally crawled out of the icy tomb Mother Nature attempted to encase us in, I interviewed with the woman who is now my supervisor come Monday! My head is still spinning with how quickly everything fell into place. I've faxed in my direct deposit forms and all that jazz and it still just doesn't seem real.
Kent and I are headed out today to expand my wardrobe. I'm ridiculously excited about shopping.
-I have a new plushie friend. His name is Lok'tar, but we're calling him Loki for short. Here he is. For the non WoW fiends on my friends list (which is most of you), Loki is a Windrider/Wyvern from World of Warcraft. They're a major mode of transportation for Horde faction characters. They're also goddamn adorable. Loki has been gaming with me, watching Dexter (finally started the first season), browsing forums with me, and overall just making me squee with happiness and excitement. I keep holding him up and flapping his wings at Kent. There may have also been some "Rawr!" noises. >.>
-Now that I'm employed, the Badger and I can finally start looking for a bigger apartment (woohoo!) and getting a second vehicle. Also laptops and various and sundry luxuries that have been on the "someday" list. Living within our means has paid off in having a rather comfortable existence til now and it's paying off again in that we're going to have an awesome disposable income with both of us working.
-Finally (I think this is everything) Kent is enrolled in school for the fall. I did his applications, filed his FAFSA, and requested his transcripts to be sent which is all the major stuff. He'll have some orientation stuff to do and probably some placement tests since his ACT scores are considered expired, but all of that is easily handled. He'll also be starting school debt free and if Meme and I having anything to say about it, he'll be graduating school still debt free. :)
-Mom is a new assisted living facility. There was nothing wrong with the old place, she wasn't desperately unhappy, they weren't hurting her, or jacking up the cost of living or anything like that, it had simply served its purpose. When this whole thing began, one of our priorities (my own priority and the one I pushed every time we discussed the matter, truth be told) was to minimize the upheaval of leaving the house by keeping Mom in the same neighborhood so that she could still attend her church and see her friends. And for awhile she did just that. She kept going to choir practice, went to weekly mass, had brunch with everyone, and even went on outings with various people.
Then she started getting headaches. Multiple ones each week, bad enough that my siblings and I all received at least one phone call or voice message with our mother on the verge of tears telling us that her head hurt. She's on medication number three now (maybe four) in trying to treat and prevent the damn things. They seem to have improved, but that's another story. With all the pain, Mom didn't want to go to church or choir practice. In started as sporadic absences and then she just stopped altogether because she never knew if she was going to feel good. She start taking communion from a volunteer that visited weekly and she seemed content.
From the start we knew that the closer you got to Dallas, the more options you had in facilities and the cheaper the cost due to competition. We also knew that there was a place right across the street from Damon's house. He toured the place and found that there was an open room so he and I took Mom out to lunch one day to discuss the possibility of moving. She was interested so we scheduled a time for the three of us to have lunch with the director and to have a tour. Everyone liked it so deposits were made and we got ready to do some heavy lifting. We were a bit delayed with all the snow and ice, but we finally made it happen last week and Mom spent her first night there on Friday.
Overall, Mom seems happy about the change. She says that Esperanza has better coffee than Sterling House. I'm happy about the change too. Instead of driving down the highway for half an hour to pick her up, I can just zip across town and be there in about ten minutes. Damon and the kiddos can walk over to see her once the weather is nicer (which hopefully won't be much longer) and they're planning to have her over for dinner at least once a week. Her expenses are now down by $900+ per month. This place is literally about 20% cheaper and they have TONS more activities including recurring weekly events, a monthly restaurant outing paid for by Esperanza and not out-of-pocket, worship services, animal visits from a local no-kill shelter, and, the thing that makes me squee the most, they have about a half dozen little brown rabbits that live in the courtyard. They even have pellets available so the residents can go out and feed the bunnies.
There's so much attention to detail and little things just make you stand back and say "Wow, someone really cared and really thought this through." They maintain memory books for the residents with pictures and such and give it to the resident as a keepsake should they ever move away or to the family when their loved one passes away. They have their own "Make a Wish" program. One resident wanted to go on a date so they arranged for some cute young man (the nephew of a staff member) to bring her flowers and take her out to dinner. Another resident writes short stories so they gathered up some of his works, had them bound, and then held a book signing for him and gave all the residents a copy of his book. And all of it is done at Esperanza's own expense. I have high hopes for this place.
-I have a job now! Not quite a month ago I got in touch with a firm that does nothing but job placements for college grads looking to get a foot in the door on their way to a new career. Put in an application, submitted my resume, and about two weeks later got a phone call. The recruiter had a potential job that he thought I'd be suited for and wanted to meet me in person, talk about my past experience, and just get to know me as a person instead of a resume. He liked what I had to say so he sent me information along to the hiring company and once we finally crawled out of the icy tomb Mother Nature attempted to encase us in, I interviewed with the woman who is now my supervisor come Monday! My head is still spinning with how quickly everything fell into place. I've faxed in my direct deposit forms and all that jazz and it still just doesn't seem real.
Kent and I are headed out today to expand my wardrobe. I'm ridiculously excited about shopping.
-I have a new plushie friend. His name is Lok'tar, but we're calling him Loki for short. Here he is. For the non WoW fiends on my friends list (which is most of you), Loki is a Windrider/Wyvern from World of Warcraft. They're a major mode of transportation for Horde faction characters. They're also goddamn adorable. Loki has been gaming with me, watching Dexter (finally started the first season), browsing forums with me, and overall just making me squee with happiness and excitement. I keep holding him up and flapping his wings at Kent. There may have also been some "Rawr!" noises. >.>
-Now that I'm employed, the Badger and I can finally start looking for a bigger apartment (woohoo!) and getting a second vehicle. Also laptops and various and sundry luxuries that have been on the "someday" list. Living within our means has paid off in having a rather comfortable existence til now and it's paying off again in that we're going to have an awesome disposable income with both of us working.
-Finally (I think this is everything) Kent is enrolled in school for the fall. I did his applications, filed his FAFSA, and requested his transcripts to be sent which is all the major stuff. He'll have some orientation stuff to do and probably some placement tests since his ACT scores are considered expired, but all of that is easily handled. He'll also be starting school debt free and if Meme and I having anything to say about it, he'll be graduating school still debt free. :)