Finding Memo

Thursday morning my Mom’s uncle Gary and his wife Diane finally arrived in South Bend.  That morning we went out for breakfast at the Pancake House.  After breakfast we went to Madison Center to check grandma Annie OUT!  Yeah!!  We went straight over to Tanglewood and got her comfortable.  My Mom, Dad, Gary, Diane, and I had lunch with her.  We stayed even longer, just to make sure she was settled in, and even stayed long enough for dinner.

Friday was our last day there.  We got a few more little things from grandma’s old house and tried as hard as we could to make her new place feel like home.  My Mom, Dad, and I had lunch with grandma Annie.  We stayed with her most of the day and we said our goodbyes,  even though we were coming back in the morning.  We went to dinner at Olive Garden with Gary and Diane.  We needed to sit down and make sure we were all on the same page and say some final goodbyes.  After dinner we went back to my grandpa’s and started packing.

Memo

On Tuesday afternoon, Tanglewood came to interview grandma Annie.  Right there and then, they said that she was accepted, and that she could go on a tour of Tanglewood and eat lunch there.  For an assisted living place the food was surprisingly good.  It’s sort of like a restaurant.  Every day you order from a menu and you have a waitress that takes your order!  It’s cool.  It was fun when we were taking the tour, grandma said,”Oh wow this is like my palace,” it was cute.

Wednesday was a busy day!  We started off at grandma Annie’s house, doing lots of laundry and moving furniture.  Oh my god, there’s so many clothes downstairs!!  Bags, and bags, and bags!  So, my Mom went through a lot of it and put some of it in the wash, and then I hung it up on the clothes line outside.  Then my Mom and Dad moved some furniture into the garage.  We didn’t move it all, but it was crazy how much stuff she had.  Later that day we transferred the stuff in the garage into my grandpa’s van and brought it all over to Tanglewood.  We arranged the furniture and then went back to relax at my grandpa’s house.

Memo

Friday, the 13th of March, started out with some bad news.  In the afternoon, Milton Home called and said that they wouldn’t accept grandma because she was refusing medicine.  When we went to go see grandma Annie, she had a big smile on her face and we hated that we had to tell her such horrible news.  It really sucks that we got denied by Milton Home.  That day was Friday the 13th.

It was really nice on Saturday, warm and sunny, we decided to walk down to the park.  When we came across the park it was filled with great oak trees, it was beautiful!  The park there was way cooler than Colorado parks.  There was a big thing that spin around and then you are almost flying in the air.  It’s hard to explain but it was really fun.    Later Saturday night,  my Dad’s cousin Chris and aunt Pat came over to eat dinner.  My Mom made salmon, mash potatoes, and grilled vegetables.  They stayed for a while and left back to Michigan.  It was really nice to get to know them better because I didn’t get a chance to really meet them before.

Memo

Not much, not much at all.  We didn’t really do much on Wednesday.  In the afternoon we visited grandma Annie at Madison Center for a few hours.  When we got back I did a little school work.  The night before, aunt Kathy wanted to know if we wanted to go out to eat.  When she got to my grandpas we had a hard time deciding where to go.  It end up being Red Lobster.  The food I got was super gross!  I hated it, but it was what I got, so I had to at lest eat some of it.

On Thursday morning my Mom and I went to West End Bakery (also on “the list”).  My Mom likes to go there every time we’re in South Bend. When she was little her and her mom used to go and get doughnuts together.  So, she takes me there every time too.  I don’t just come “just to come”, the smell in there is so good and the doughnuts are fabulous!  Before we went to see grandma, we stopped by the Fannie May candy store to get some chocolates for grandma and us.  If you haven’t tried these, you have no clue what you’re missing out on.

When we went to see grandma Annie, we got to be there the whole time Milton Home interviewed her.  They said that they’ll talk it out and give us the answer on Thursday. After that,we didn’t do much at all that night except hope that she got into Milton Home.

Memo

Here I am, back to talk about my time in Indiana again.  There is one thing I forgot to add in the blog about what I did 3-8-09.  When we were done visiting my Dad’s family in Michigan, my Dad took my Mom and I on a tour of his old houses.  The first one that he showed us in Barrien Center, MI was really cool because it was surrounded with orchards and behind the house were a whole bunch of pine trees.  The second house, in Barrien Springs, MI was smaller and was cool because it was in the woods.  Like my dorky parents, they had to take a picture of the old Apple Valley grocery store sign.  Fun Fact: It was one of the first organic grocery stores.

On Monday my Mom checked out a whole bunch of nursing and assisted living places for my grandma Annie.  While my Mom was gone my Dad and I didn’t do much, but we did race each other on Mario Kart Ds.  When my Mom came home we headed to my great grandma Czajkowski’s house to celebrate my grandpa’s birthday.

Tuesday my Mom and Dad looked at an assisted living place called Milton Home.  They thought it was good, they could see grandma Annie there, and they also liked it because it was right on the St. Joe river.  After they got back we ate lunch and headed off to tell grandma the good news.  Milton Home said they would come evaluate her on Thursday.  Later that night my aunt Kathy came over and my grandpa, aunt Kathy, my Mom and I started playing a card game called peanuts.  Peanuts is sort of like solitaire, but with more people.  It’s a game  we play every time they visit or when my family and I visit.  This game is fun and very competitive.

Memo

On Saturday morning we got up and got ready for my Mom’s biological father’s funeral.  At the funeral, people were very emotional and I know I would be too if he was my brother, uncle, or even my dad, but he was never there when I was born or barely in my Mom’s life, so we definitely weren’t as sad as the people that were really close to him.  After the funeral there was a wake, an after funeral party (with food).  Surprisingly the wake was pretty fun.  I played Guitar Hero Three, which to me that’s kind of weird to have at a “funeral party”.

My Mom's uncle Mike, John, My Mom, Jimmy, and Theresa at the Wake

Later that night  we went over to my Dad’s step brother, James’ house.  My Dad calls him Mex, because he’s part Mexican and him and his friends called him Mex for his nick-name.   Over at “Mex’s” house I hung out with his girlfriend’s son.  For most of the night we played against each other on our Ds’ (most of the time he won).

Sunday morning we went for breakfast at a restaurant called Bob Evans (it was on the list).  After breakfast we drove to Michigan to visit some of my Dad’s family, the Lamirands’.  We visited my Dad’s cousin Chris, Chris’s husband, their son Jacob, his aunt Pat, and his grandma McAlpine.  That day was super rainy too.  It was kind of weird, because we hadn’t had rain in Colorado for a long time, it felt nice.  When we got back to my grandpa’s house we didn’t do much besides sit on the couch and relax.

My Dad's aunt Pat, My Dad, Me(Mia or Memo), Cousin Chris, and Grandma McAlpine

I’m back!  When we woke up on Friday morning, we knew we had a big day ahead of us.  In the morning we didn’t do much, we kinda just sat around for a few hours, but in the afternoon, boy let me tell ya!  It started around 2 in the afternoon when we went to go see my great grandma at Madison Center (psychiatric hospital, but she isn’t really crazy).  She was very happy to see us and we were happy to see her too.  I think it was a little hard for all of us seeing her in Madison Center because we knew she didn’t belong there!  She didn’t like the idea of us moving her to an assisted living home, she said and I quote,”Oh, I don’t want to move, just leave me here to die dammit!”  We didn’t listen because we wanted her to live someplace where there aren’t people making weird noises constantly, we wanted her to be in a home where she would be happy.

After visiting my grandma Annie, we went to meet up with some of the people from the Gannon family, the other side of my Mom’s family.  We met up with my Mom’s uncle Jimmy, aunt Theresa, uncle Mike, uncle John, grandma Helen, her half sister Shannon, and her other half sister Angelia.  I had never met these people before, but it was nice to meet new people.  Most of the night we were over at the hotel they were staying at and after the long day we went back to the house and got a good night sleep.

Memo

On Wednesday night my family, our dog, and I hit the road and headed for Indiana.  We left Denver, Colorado in late afternoon and arrived in Kearney, Nebraska at about 11:30pm.  In the morning we had the hotel’s “awesome” continental breakfast and left around 8:30.  When we were in Iowa, we saw a ton of windmills to provide wind energy.  You could definitely tell Iowa was trying to GO GREEN!

Driving through all those states was very tiring and really LONG! On top of that, when we finally got to South Bend the toll booth wasn’t working. We waited in a huge line where everybody was trying to force their tickets through the machine and finally someones ticket got stuck.  We were right behind that person so we figured out that you have to push the call button. After 45 min. of waiting we got to my grandpa’s house at 10 o’ clock!  I’ll talk about all the other time we spent on our trip there in the next blog.

Memo