Good luck ruet, I wish you success! Tom

Well it has been a while since I updated everyone on my personal journey through hell. It means a lot that when I go places and bump into any of you guys that you ask how the situation is going. First off, you Care! and second of all - you read what I write! It means a lot. Dad has declined further. He just now got transfered back the acute care facility where I believe a lot of the past postings took place. He begs to go home. He is finally paying attention to the bad news details. They say that patients focus on the sugar coating and ignore the uncomfortable stuff until it is way late in the game and then they act like it is all new to them. On the one hand I am dang glad I ain't the one there holding his hand, but on the other I am sad for my brother and sister who are there - more than likely answering the same questions over and over every day to both my dad and my mom. They are looking into Hospice care since it is paid for by insurance. As I understand it, all you need to qualify is a 6 month life expectancy. Once that is granted, you can recieve care at home even if it means round the clock nursing care (which is what he needs) and it doesn't matter what happens at six months, people have been in the system for years. The current dispute is over where to be buried. My dad is from this teeny tiny dustbowl town in western Oklahoma. A place that just screams 'prairie', surrounded by wheat fields and cattle with an occasional oil derrick. A place so flat you can sit on your front porch and watch your dog run away, run away clear to the next county!! I don't want to live there but I sure do like to visit it. So I would enjoy that drive once a year. Evidentally this place doesn't have the same appeal to my mother. She would rather have him buried in the town where they live now. Odd how we attach ourselves to places. Our family has lived in five states (and that's just the ones I remember! Lord knows how many there were before the kids were born), and two prefectures in Japan where I grew up. Guess this makes a good case for cremation. The only way you can possibly sprinkle yourself from one end of the country to the other. Since he seems to be one of those long lingering death sorta guys, nobody knows how long this could go on. The doctors are baffled that he persists today. He isn't uncomfortable, he isn't in pain, for part of the day he is alert and talkative. My brother is exhausted and wants someone else to swoop in and make all the decisions. He doesn't want anything blame-able to be tied to something he said or did. My sister is a realist. She sees that this isn't going to end well or soon. She just wants my dad to go home while he can participate in the house and activities there. Once he gets further diminished she won't care if he is placed in an institution. Right now, none of us can give him the medical care and cleaning that he needs. The only option would be to hire a live in 24 hour nurse. They only have the money to do that for a few months but by then he may qualify for hospice care. He is concerned about spending all his money instead of leaving any of it to us kids. Our answer is to ask him once again to draw us a map to the buried treasure in the backyard. We know its out there, somewhere, or maybe it was the yard in Fort Worth?

IKEA is a great solution for you-especially if you're at the fatigued/broke stage of the decorating process-and sister, we all get there eventually :). I think there is some variation of Expedit coming out, as explained in the design blog post below that I read recently. You could google or even call and ask IKEA what's up. Looks like the replacement series should be out very soon anyway if the Expedit look is what you really like. IKEA is fantastic for setting something up that won't cost much and can be seriously customized with some creative and relatively simple carpenter/trim tricks. Check out the IKEA hack website; people turn those pieces into some incredibly nice looking built-in wall and entertainment units. Good luck, hang in there! Here is a link that might be useful: What's Up with Expedit

Thank you all for your kind words and good wishes for tomorrow. New Hampshire is having a severe ice storm. School was let out early. My DH's flight home was canceled due to icy conditions at the Manchester airport this evening. The ice storm will continue until 7am. I am preparing myself for the almost inevitable phone call in the morning regarding my installation. But the kids and I are safe and warm inside with a lovely fire going, listening to Karen Carpenter sing Christmas carols and we have enjoyed one of our last microwavable dinners (because no matter what happens tomorrow, we still can see the finish line). We have decided that the hardest part about not having a working kitchen is the lack of a large sink with running water. We laughed as we did dishes tonight in the tub upstairs since I painted sample colors on the walls today and the powder room sink is a mess. My sons and I watched a prerecorded Tyler Florence show on making a Crown Pork Roast with apple pecan stuffing and fantasized about sitting down for a proper meal again. My daughter refused to watch saying we were torturing ourselves! It's funny, because the inconvenience of not having a functional kitchen, (especially the lack of running water) has been a daily reminder of how blessed we are. Every night we go to bed safe and warm and with a full belly when much of the world will go to bed hungry tonight and many a mother will spend her day tomorrow searching for clean water for her family. It's been a good experience to go without. Makes you appreciate what you have. And it has been wonderful to have met such wonderfully supportive, kind and helpful people from all over this country on the GW. It gives me great hope for our country. Thank you all for being there for me and maybe tomorrow the sun will come out and melt all of the ice and I'll have my countertop and running water after all. If I do, prepare for PICTURES!