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I'm here. Leaves are blowing in the midwest.
Tough meeting today, feeling drained. Lots to juggle with work, costs, expectations, logistics and ....most draining, politics..
Looking forward to going home on Friday.
Looking forward to vacation with my sister-in-law near the end of October.

Happy (clap happy) for my oldest son who is starting a job tomorrow, and who passed a tough course on tuesday. He is not in his career job, but, he will get hours and pay and maybe benefits, and it is a step closer to his career job...so, all is good.
 
Have to go to Kitchener on the weekend to take Dad to an appointment. It's as much to get him out of the apartment for a while as for the appointment. We're accelerating the process of getting him a bed somewhere. He's reached the point where his wife can't handle it anymore and she's starting to crack. I have a lot of things to be thankful for this coming weekend but dementia isn't one of them.
 
In a public school, of course we don't pray. However, my Grade 1 and 2 class and I have been cooking this week, so that we can have a harvest lunch tomorrow. Part of it will be to talk about things we are thankful for. So, we will be giving thanks, just not as a prayer. Our feast includes: homemade butter (kids had a blast shaking the cream) on warm biscuits, soup with offerings from each child (LOTS of carrots), pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and punch made from juice and seven up. I have four reading groups, so each group got to make one item. And we all worked together to make the soup. Hope it goes well!
 
Hugs to all who are struggling this night ... burdens create exhaustion for sure ... whether work, or worry, or care-giving, or grieving. Know that you are not alone. And this too shall pass.
 
Mendella, sorry about your father, and the next step. Hard on Mom, hard on family. Please take care.....

Nancy, I had a coworkers who kindergarten teacher made stone soup. ummm...most of the kids were sick shortly there after, food poisoning it seemed from the soup! Hope you are luckier.

I had forgotten it was thanksgiving on Monday. Lots to be thankful for, Dad is a bit grumpy do my absence, but, maybe i can make a traditional thanksgiving dinner, and make him smile. I'm sure that he is planning me to be removed from his will, next! such as life with that man.
 
Mendella, sorry about your father, and the next step. Hard on Mom, hard on family. Please take care.....

No Mom. She's been dead 20 years and that's probably part of the problem. His current wife isn't ready to deal with this and doesn't have the 50 or so years of relationship that he would have had with my mother had she lived. Things would likely have played out differently with her.
 
Isn't it funny how that plays out. My mother-in-law died 25 years before her husband. He re-married and ended up dying with Alzheimer's. Wife #1 would have been useless in that situation; wife #2 was amazing.

I am hoping that if I work like an absolute lunatic this afternoon (my door's shut; I'm going to try locking it and turning off the overhead light...), I can take a 4-day weekend starting tomorrow...
 
@Nancy, read them the story "Stone Soup"
We listened to an excellent version of Stone Soup, where the reader changes her voice, and sings a little song (Soupdelicious soup). Then I asked the students to tell me what was the same about our soup and the one in the story. After listing ingredients, they came up with...We all worked together to make our soup and the village worked together to make their soup! After I dished out the soup, I pulled a stone from my pocket and said: "Look at what I found in the soup!" They stared in disbelief...and then I told them that I was teasing. It was really a stone from our Science table. It was a grand feast, and the 'thanksgiving' part of it was great. Although some were thankful for video games, many were thankful for family and school. One little boy, who has a very best friend in our class, said that he was thankful for best friends. Melted my heart.
 
I got some bad news about a family member. Thanksgiving plans are now up in the air. I'm sad for me, sad for the family, concerned for someone's wellbeing and ticked off that the person drove themselves to the hospital in a state that they shouldn't have. No news directly from them yet even though I'm the only relative in the same city. I would have driven them to the hospital if they were willing to wait the time it would take me to drive there.
 
I got some bad news about a family member. Thanksgiving plans are now up in the air. I'm sad for me, sad for the family, concerned for someone's wellbeing and ticked off that the person drove themselves to the hospital in a state that they shouldn't have. No news directly from them yet even though I'm the only relative in the same city. I would have driven them to the hospital if they were willing to wait the time it would take me to drive there.

Seems strange that they would drive themselves rather than calling you or an ambulance. Hope they will be okay soon.
 
Sorry Chemgal to hear about your relative. I hope all goes well for them.
It is difficult to know what a person will do in an emergency--or even how they will define an emergency.
Seelerman once experienced sudden, severe abdominal pain while driving a concrete mixer on the highway. He managed to pull over and radio back to his plant. They sent a pick-up truck for him and he asked to be driven home, for me to drive him to the nearby hospital. Neither of us had ever had any experience with a kidney stone prior to that time.
And me, I was alone at home when I felt really weird as though something was wrong, really uncomfortable in my guts. I tried laying down. A bit later I threw up, and felt a bit better. But then worse--and worse. Discomfort had turned to pain. I realized that I'd better do something while I was still able. I called a taxi to take me to emergency--a ten minute drive but by the time we got there I was whimpering in pain and he was so anxious to get me out of the taxi that he didn't wait to be paid. A few hours later I had an emergency bowel resection. Two different neighbours scolded me later that they could have come over, driven me, and stayed with me until my kids arrived to sign papers.
In both these situations an ambulance would have been the logical call to make.
 
Thanks. I got some good news late last night, although there will still be tests and the status can change at any time. Listening this morning, things are as bad as the second hand information I was getting. The person still shouldn't have driven themselves, an ambulance would have been overkill, but between their mental state, including lots of tears, as well as the likelihood they could have lost consciousness I'm annoyed that they drove. We are pretty fair (all within city limits), so I can understand not wanting to wait for us, although waiting that extra time wouldn't have harmed them, but a cab or a friend would have also been good choices. There was also some warning before the person decided it was time to go to the hospital, so I could have hung out with them, making sure they were ok until they figured things were bad enough that it was time to go to the emergency room.
 
We've got a bed for Dad (woo hoo!). It's in a facility that we haven't even checked out yet (not so woo hoo!). I'm going to visit this weekend but under the circumstances, we'll probably have to take it and then keep him on the waiting list for our preferring facilities. At least the CCAC coordinates all this centrally so we don't have to deal with each home individually.
 
That should have been things aren't as bad as the secondhand info I had.

Mendalla, glad to hear you got things sorted out for your Dad. Big changes for him, I hope the facility is comfortable for him until he can get into one you thought would be better.
 
Mendalla, this is a difficult-to-negotiate bit. I'd advise you to make sure that you have a couple of good solid first choices that don't have waiting lists in the years (some of them do). My Mom was in her 'not-preferred home', in a village 50 km from home (and a really nasty drive in the winter), for 18 months (two winters), so I was very glad when she was back in town, but she'd made some very good friends by the time she left and it was hard for her to re-adjust. Very good question to ask: what do you do when staff are off sick? (Best answer: call in a replacement. Poor answer: well, if it's only for one shift...) Hugs as you work through this.
 
More bad news. The family here wants time alone, so we'll be sticking to our original travel plans, but it isn't going to be a Happy Thanksgiving with my family.
 
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