I cut her off at the quick tonight...

It's 8:10 pm and Mom starts to get fidgety. I see her glancing sideways at me, returning to neutral position with a loud sigh meant for my ears. I ignore her...keep typing. A few minutes later, she shifts in her chair, glances over at me (she's not all that sly), sighs. Settles back in a bit heavier this time.

A few minutes later, lather, rinse, repeat but the sighs are getting louder. So, before she can say anything about going to bed early, I get up and make her a dessert shooter. That shut her up...until 8:15. I've got a long night coming.

Oh, too, last night, I finally gave into her at 8:30 and put her to bed. I went upstairs at 10 after making sure she was sound asleep. I took up the monitor and put it in bed with me. After finally falling asleep at midnight, I hear this little "Lori...Lori....Lori." I drag myself out of bed, glance at the clock (2 am) and go downstairs. She's sitting up in bed - looks at me and (wait for it) says "Oh, what are you doing up?"....

"Really? REALLY? WHY AM I UP?" And then, in the meekest voice possible, she whispers "Is it time for coffee?" After I assured her (not quite that calmly) it was 2am (she didn't believe me), she laid back down, bitching softly to herself the whole time. It would have been pretty funny if it wasn't 2 am.

One more cute story, Mom, John and I were having dinner in the dining room when I saw another new bruise on her arm. Not sure where this one came from but I told her that, if someone didn't know me, they'd think I was abusing her. She looks at me and says "If you're not abusing me, you're yelling at me." Cracked us all up.

Gertie - augh...

Haven't written in quite a while - getting Mom settled back into the house where she's doing quite well. In fact, she's doing so well I'm going to have her bed moved back to her bedroom upstairs this week.

Anyway, just wanted to hop on and recreate a "conversation" we just had. Mom is in her chair, legs up, oxygen on. She starts to fiddle with the oxygen tube, as is  her wont. I yell over (she can't hear unless I'm at 100 decibels...) and tell her to "LEAVE YOUR OXYGEN ALONE." She looks at me, scowls and says "You don't need to yell at me"....

About 3 seconds later, literally, she looks at me and says "Can I take this off now?" "Ok" I say, a decible 75.

"Huh?" is her response. "OK!!!!! TAKE IT OFF" -

"I said you don't have to yell at me". Someone, please, help me.

So, she takes off her oxygen and, honest Injun, she looks at me 30 seconds later and says "Can you put this back on me?"

The little hair I have left is about to fall out on its own. "NO! YOU JUST TOOK IT OFF."

She contemplates this for about 10 seconds and, in the sweetest little voice, she says "You would if you loved me."

She won.