Connie Hansen Garden & Fun with Grandgirls

My day was more bizarre than usual, due to having to get Tess’s prescription filled, AND figure out how to pay for a tank full of gas. Jeez, $40 for my tiny Dodge Neon. Of course I didn’t totally fill it, that was all the money I could come up with today, aside from a few bucks grocery money. Tess’s family needed bread, milk, and something for dinner which Athena could fix. I took my dad a delicious Marion berry muffin, since they are one of his favorites, and had a serious discussion with the PT gal. She said he has one or two days in five or six where he is able to go more than one trip out one door and around and in the other, what amounts to about 40 feet total. She said today he only made it halfway before he was nearly falling to sit in his wheelchair which accompanies him on his loops. She says when he was in there a little over a year ago he was able to gain strength from his exercises and she says now he really isn’t improving much at all. I know she is trying to let me down easy, but it was pretty obvious the day we took him out to lunch that he is just plain 88 and not getting any younger. She says it is time to talk about long-term arrangements. I said, I had no clue what to do at this point. He has a limited income and none of the assisted living facilities are taking new patients if they are not self pay, and the rehab center is only taking new long terms as old ones either die or move to another facility.

While I was out I also picked up cupcakes for Cassie, Athena and I to have a little birthday party the day before Cassie's BD. So when I got back home I brought Athena and Cassie to my house, that was at about 4:45 pm. We ate cupcakes and laughed and drank tons of bottled flavored water. Athena thought it was great fun pouring flavoring in her bottle and mine and shaking the daylights out of them. Cassie drank so much of it she soggied her diaper. Fortunately I had an extra here, but not before she had wet her new jeans, onsie top and my jeans. So she and I both stripped down and put our clothes in the wash. I told her it was okay, she could run around in her jacket. Suddenly she decided a bath sounded like a better idea, so I worked on making some dinner while Athena kept her entertained in the bath. They just went home at about 8:30, and I am one tired grandma. I think everyone had a great time, and there were plenty of cupcakes to take home and share with mommy and Eric. Athena’s biggest entertainment while she was here was going up and down in grandpa’s lift chair. I had never let her “play with” it before, but she was so hyper I figured correctly it would entertain her.

While i was waiting for the prescription I figured I would spend some time at our local version of a Botanical Garden, the Connie Hansen Garden. There were some lovely things in bloom Rhododendrons in a variety of colors and some pale lavender azaleas (just click on the thumbnail photos for a bigger version):









There was also some fascinating skunk cabbage, and even some tiny minnows, the first of the season: