Nursing

Well, I'm in California! Easy trip.

And Grandma is out of the hospital so I kind of wonder why I'm here. I mean one day I get a call that Grandma is in intensive care, and I fly here and I find she's left the hospital already! Certainly not the way things would go in Japan! If one gets put in the hospital they usually stay a couple weeks or a month or two. I remember telling my mother when I first came to Japan that if I ever ended up in the hospital she wasn't to think I was on my death bed just because I was in for a couple months, that's just the way it is done in Japan.

Marcy didn't tell Grandma that I was flying in early and wanted to surprise her. Is a surprise such a good idea for someone her age who isn't in such great health? But Marcy felt an extra jolt would perk things up a bit so when we trooped into Grandma's bedroom Marcy says,

"Grandma~~ Look at the new cleaning lady I picked up for you."

Grandma took one look at me looked back at Marcy and said,

"Am I awake?"

It has been nice having the computer and all the pictures in it with the wide screen so that Grandma's failing eyesight can see them. We've gone through quite a few of the picture folders in here and always she wants to stop and look at the kitties. That's nice.

Mostly Grandma sleeps. And she needs help to get up, to move from bed to bathroom. To eat. She doesn't want to be left alone so I stay sitting beside her and I took a nap on the floor in the next room. Even that panics her to think that she is alone. I can see how Marcy will be very happy to have me take over nursing duties but I don't know how things are going to go once I have to leave again. No, Tanya, that is thinking way too far ahead. You just got here.

Some humor... I helped Grandma to the bathroom with the use of the walker and making sure her legs held her. She wobbles from side to side and sometimes falls backwards.

"I don't know how I can get so wobbly so suddenly like this. I feel like an old woman."

"Um... You ARE an old woman at 87."

"Am I 87? No wonder I feel like I am 80!"

"If you feel like you are 80 then you are doing good. That's 7 years younger than you really are!"

We'll see what the first night brings and hope we can slip into a routine.

"Because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed,

for His compassions never fail.

They are new every morning; Great is Thy faithfulness."

Lamentations 3:22-23

Last minute things

Doing last minute things around here. Tetsu holds down the fort pretty well whenever I'm gone so I don't have to do extra cleaning or shopping or cooking. I think he is going to live on noodles and take out stuff while he goes back to single life. He's great at cleaning but not so hot in the cooking department. I have a feeling I'm going to come back to high levels of frustration for the cats and Choco. They certainly won't get the attention I give them.

I haven't shown any hand craft pictures in a couple of days have I? I finished the applique on my Great Aussie quilt. If I were going to be around I'd put a border on this and sandwich it for machine quilting but this is going on the shelf.

I quilted for two weeks on the bazaar quilt. Forgot to take any pictures of that and yesterday passed it on to Mrs. Furui.

Finished the embroidery on the Round Robin. I don't think the recipient visits my blog so this is what I did. It was kind of fun. I found the pattern at this link and if I ever do embroidery I'd like to visit here again.

I have been considering taking my feathered star quilt to the States to quilt there... but it is so big. And I never have enough space in my luggage on my way back to Japan anyway. Why would I want to add a quilt to the luggage? But if I'm going to have a lot of sitting around time... And hot! Do I want to be quilting in California heat? No, I guess I do not. I'll have to find something else to keep me busy.

Today's afternoon includes packing, visiting Tetsu's mom and doing a little shopping. Then off bright and early tomorrow morning.

Next post from the States!

Laughter

Thank you everyone! It is so lovely to hear words of encouragement and nudges to do something I can't decide on my own!

Update. I decided (this morning!) that since I was planning to go to the States next month anyway to just push up the date and leave Monday morning. I wasn't sure what I was waiting for. I mean, how serious does it have to be to be serious enough to justify a trip back to the States. I guess it is serious enough if I feel it is.

Tetsu and I got the ticket change arranged this morning and I leave day after tomorrow at 9:00 am. I have just spent an hour calling students and friends and letting them know of my change in plans. Gee. It's not like people live for my English class! Maybe even some of the kids will be happy for the break!

I've talked to Marcy a couple more times and things are not as critical as they first seemed. Mom's out of the ICU. Okay, I guess I will go and just keep her company and get in on the discussions of how to care for her from now on. Good!

I was relating all this to Tetsu and we were even laughing about some of the stories Marcy tells. Like how a jumbo nurse introduced herself and Mom looked up and groaned,

"Wow, she's big!"

Marcy shushed her saying "Grandma! Don't talk so loud! She might hurt you!"

And the nurse overheard and said, "Yeah! You don't want me to sit on you!!" and a lot of laughing followed for everyone, even for Grandma hanging over the bedpan!

Or how when pushing Grandma's bed from the emergency room to the ICU Grandma calls out "Marcy, where are you?"

And Marcy says, "Just hold on there Grandma! I'm steering!"

Tetsu can't believe that we can find humor in the situation. In his family (in Japan?) everyone takes offense if anyone, nurse, family members or other, makes light of a difficult situation. Gloom is supposed to prevail. Well, Laughter is the Best Medicine and the past couple of days it has done wonders for me. I've told Marcy that her laughter and joking has probably added a lot of years to my mother's life already.

So I am still here but not for long! I'm also going to give up on answering comments for awhile. Forgive me. Thank you so much!

Angels

Good Morning! I am making an effort to start out the day cheerfully. I drew happy faces on our coffee this morning (whipped milk and cinnamon faces) to get me in the mood.

I got a phone call from Marcy, my sister-in-law yesterday afternoon. Hmmm. That is never good... No, no! Getting to talk to Marcy is great! But if she has to call for a special reason then I know it is not so good.

Mother is in an ICU unit. Not good. She is talking. Good. The doctor doesn't like what he sees. Not good. Marcy is spending a lot of time at the hospital. Good for Mom, not good in general.

So I've got to decide if I'm flying out suddenly this weekend, or next week. I had planned to go on July 9th but maybe I'd better go now... I hate this. Deciding is worse than doing. I'm waiting for more news, someone to tell me to get on a plane or wait. I'm going through my papers to see if I can find all of my students' telephone numbers in case I have to suddenly cancel. Wow, am I disorganized. I should have these things at my fingertips but I find that I don't know how to get in touch with 10 of my students.

I'm praying, but I don't know what to pray for... Health... Love... Ease... Strength... Wisdom...

One of Marcy's favorite Bible verses is:

"The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him..."

Psalms 34:7

Right now I'm believing that we are surrounded by God's angels.

Dinosaur quilt

Not much quilty content recently on my blog. I am embroidering and quilting. As mentioned before, hand quilting is such a long process that yesterday's picture looks the same as today's and tomorrow's. I am going back and forth between my own Feathered Star and the Bazaar quilt.

So today I'll show you an old quilt in honor of Takumi's birthday. This has a label on it that says

"6/3/93

To Takumi, Love Mommy"

That's what I call a simple label. 1993...so it must have been made for Takumi's 8th birthday. Mrs. Furui and I found this pattern in an Australian quilting book (I think) and we both decided to make it for our boys. This was just when we were getting the hang of roller cutting and piecing with a sewing machine. Up until then I think we had done all our piecing by hand.

I spent a lot of time looking for a large leaf background print and finally found one that was suitable and bought 4 yards of it. And then the very next day I found THIS leaf print that I fell in love with so I bought it and used it instead. I don't know what I did with the original 4 yards...

This was before I'd even heard of machine quilting so I just hand quilted around the dinosaurs. There are no swirls or patterns or other artwork. If I were do this again I'd probably try some fancy machine quilting in the background maybe following the leaf pattern. I'm not going to mess with it again though. It is a record of my "progress" and patchwork "skills".

Mrs. Furui's quilt came out about the same and both of our boys seemed happy with their quilts. I guess. It is fine for a young boy but once he'd grown out of it, Takumi has never looked at it again. Mrs. Furui's son took his dinosaur quilt away with him to college but Takumi's just sits here on the shelf. I ought to make him a more appropriate quilt but he doesn't take too much interest in my hobby. Maybe someday...

So today the Dinosaur quilt is up on the wall for a day or two just so I can take a picture, share it here and let it air a bit!

Happy Birthday Takumi!

Today Takumi is 24 years old! Happy Birthday Takumi!

I didn't do anything for Takumi's special day... I'm not very good at planning. And it is not just that he is far away. Even when the kids were little I wasn't good at birthday parties and special dinners and family get-aways. Birthdays just came and went and either Tetsu or I would make a run to 31 Flavors to buy an ice cream selection at the last minute. Poor kids.

Takumi, how about if I promise to buy you shoes again this summer when I'm in the States? I think that's what happened last year too.

Well, we don't get too much information from Takumi's side of the world. He is busy with school and his part time job and his skateboard. These are pictures from his skateboard trip around Northern Japan last summer. He downloaded his pictures into my computer so at least I can make him a Picasa collage.

Happy Birthday Takumi, and love you lots and lots and lots!!!

Visiting

"A man's wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense."

Proverbs 19:11

I'm a pretty slow tempered person (I think. Ask my husband and kids. I may be wrong.) I can't think of many people that I haven't been able to forgive. A few I've had to work at. A few I've agreed in my mind to disagree with. Basically I try not to take offense even if there might be grounds...

When Tetsu and I were married 30 years ago, Tetsu's family was surprised but they cheerfully accepted a foreigner becoming part of their family. I even lived with Tetsu and his mother the first couple months and she lived with us for a couple months a few years later. This didn't work out that great but I'd say we have a good relationship. I probably should go over to see Tetsu's mother more than I do...

Tetsu's older brother lives in another prefecture. We only see him once every three or four years. Tetsu's sister lives in the next town over but we only see her once a year or less. I don't know where the problem started but the siblings do not get a long all that well. I think the rest of the family feels that Tetsu has distanced himself from them. I certainly hope they don't think I'm responsible but they might. So this weekend, the brother and his wife came to visit Tetsu's mother but Tetsu had to work. Honestly I don't think he'd have gone even if he had been free. I had hoped to do some sewing after church but people are more important the projects so I went by myself to visit with the family instead.

I would like to say to all of them (including my wonderful husband),

"Let by-gones be by-gones. We are all getting up in years and it seems such a waste to hold grudges or be stubborn about some long ago hurt."

But I don't say my thoughts. The last thing I need is Tetsu getting upset with me for sticking my nose into business I know nothing about. I just sat and smiled and listened to family stories. I was a little concerned that Tetsu wasn't going to be happy about my even visiting, but he seemed very grateful that I'd made the effort and he asked about what was going on in everyone's life.

Relationships need work, don't they?

"Work hard at living in peace with others."

1 Peter 3:11