Rin's 10th birthday

It was Rin's year for a birthday party and she went back and forth with lots of different ideas.  She finally decided on a Movie & Make-over party theme.  She invited her 2 closest friends, Penny & Faith.  The girls came over on a Saturday afternoon and Jess, a make up artist, came over to give make-overs to the girls.  The plan was for the four girls (R, E, P & F) to get make overs and then we would eat dinner before going to watch a movie.  The girls were very excited and their make overs were done really well.  Being all made up made them want to get dressed up for the movie, they borrowed Rin's dress up clothes and got all fancy for the movie.  We saw Christopher Robin at 8 pm (I maybe slept a little haha) and stopped at the Dollar Tree for snacks before the movie started.

R and F

Jess had a lot of make up!

R's turn

R's actually birthday

birthday girl

He keeps us laughing

    Papaw has dementia.  He's officially been diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease.  There are medicines that can slow the progression down, but it's irreversible.  He asks the same questions over and over, forgets most of the information from the day, and sometimes does strange things that we cannot explain.  Our clan has learned to just roll with the punches and we all provide support when we can.  

    Papaw says some off the wall things.  The best thing to do is just go along with what he's saying and try to track with him best we can.  He talks in metaphors a lot like "where are we in the process" and "do we have all the pieces to the puzzle to make sure we are on track?" things like that.  He spent so many years in business I think he refers back to that type of thinking.  Sometimes papaw is suspicious of everything.  I haven't figured out exactly what sets him off every time, but I do know when things are out of the ordinary or his routine is thrown off, that makes him a bit irritable.  But 90% of the time, he is a happy jolly sweet man. 

    Last weekend we were having tacos for lunch.  Bryce cooked some taco chicken meat and we had a taco bar.  Papaw was making his plate and as I looked over, I spotted a little green guy in his taco that I don't think should have been there.  Did it hurt to add it to his taco?  Not at all.  Would it have tasted good in his taco?  Possibly.  Did it look strange to the rest of us?  Absolutely.  But our rule of thumb we try to think about is "Does it hurt if papaw does XYZ?"  Just because something is strange or weird, doesn't mean it's wrong and we need to pick our battles.  Moving forward, I'll just keep the fruit at the table, away from the taco stuff :) 

My New Role

I've always been a teacher.  Sure a wife and mother, but my calling and occupation has been a teacher.  I love teaching and love middle school students especially.  My role these days is quite different.  I've transitioned to being a caregiver and I'm really honored I have the chance to do that.  B's parents live with us now and I take care of them full time.  I could list the things I do, but really I just love and care for them.  I really do love them.  They are our family.  I no longer think about my family of 6, rather my family of 8.  It's nice being a multigenerational family (most of the time) and of course we have our ups and downs just like any family.  

My FIL has Alzheimer's and my MIL has some physical restrictions and not much strength.  Bryce and I made the decision to move them in with us around Christmas time and I began looking at houses.  We finally found the perfect house for us in March and moved in April.  P/V sold their house in Texas and flew to NC April 22.  We've lived together in this new house for 9 months!  Our house is great.  There's enough room for all 8 of us and we have a bonus room upstairs so the kids can have some space away from adults.  We have so many funny stories and I wish I would have written them all down, so maybe I'll try to document them here.  

Let me try and play catch up LOL  

Bryce got a job at The College at Southeastern (SEBTS) and we moved to NC in August 2021.  Rin is in 9th grade at Franklinton High School.  She participated in the Marching Band and right now she's on the high school swim team.  Abe is in 7th grade at Cedar Creek Middle School.  He made the school football team and is on the wrestling team.  Wes is in 6th grade also at CCMS.  Wes was the manager of the football team because he was too young to play and he's also on the wrestling team.  Ell is in 4th grade at Youngsville Elementary.  She's on the Battle of the Books team at school.  Her school is year round so every 9 weeks, she has 3 weeks off that she gets to stay home with me!  Paul and Vicki come with us to school events and sporting events too.  I take them to all their doctor appointments, nail appointments, hair appointments etc...  We call them our adult children :)