Week 224 – “Pies win Grandfinal”

I just sat in front of the computer and looked up at the clock – 8am and then realised it was now actually 9am and I hadn’t changed the clocks for daylight saving.  It’s about three weeks since I sat and put in the progress we have made – time flies very fast when you are having fun.

Last weekend was twelve months since mum passed away. It still amazes me how the little things turn up to remind you of how much she is missed. I often meet a  chat at the local fish and chip shop and he always talks about mum & dad and things that happened in the past. Maybe it’s our age and we all start talking about the past. I haven’t done much on family tree until last week when a relative on mum’s side sent me some information . It will take several days of work to upload the information. I decided to upgrade the Family tree program so we are now running Family Tree 2011.

Jill’s speech has maintained the improvements following the clinic and Rebecca her speech therapist has continued to visit each week. it is great when someone visits and comments about Jill’s speech. Jill has no confidence in her speech and needs to be reminded how good it is. The continence nurse was here on Friday and her first comment was how good Jill’s speech was in comparison to her last visit some six weeks ago. A smile appears on Jill’s face and the usual comment “Not really”. Speech lessons  still consist of the loud ahhs , repeating phrases , reading extracts out loud and talking to me. I have found that I have to ask open ended questions so that the answers are just not “Yes and No”.

Exercise has continued each day and even though the knee still has some tenderness she perseveres and she walks forward, backwards and sideways within the parallel bars. Followed by some balance exercises and squats. Next comes the cycling while sitting. Jill doesn’t like resting between exercises but I usually make it difficult for her not to. We move to the stairs and up she goes , first one then two and finally three steps , she repeats this several times and then a couple of seated exercises and finally her coordination exercise of catching and throwing a medium sized ball.  throwing to herself and bouncing the ball so that it comes back are the hardest but we keep trying . Finally its coffee and afternoon tea.  Back inside after afternoon tea the weights come out and she raises and stretches her arms while holding the 1.5 Kg weights in each hand. I worry that she will drop them as she is sitting in front of a glass table.

Jill had some excitement this week with the arrival of Allison for a visit – she just loves to have the kids here. Except for the fact that she wants me to have a three course meal prepared for them on arrival. It certainly was great to have her home and she was able to do some shopping for Jill. Jill now has a couple of Bras as I was getting the blame for wrecking the others in the washing.

Since the last time on the net my Cats were beaten and we have witnessed two grand finals. Michael tried and could not get seats for the first grand final to watch his Pies play. he was upset when we spoke to him following the first grand final when the Pies drew with ST Kilda. This last week he has tried every where to get tickets to the replay grand final. Finally he and his friend Brendon had tickets. They got tickets for the Etihad Brunch starting at 9am and then bussed to the “G” for the big match. We had several text messages and the final one after the Pies had won. He rang on his way home from the match to let us know he had decided to come home – so consequently we had a late night . Michael and I ent to the last drawn Garnd Final  back in the 70’s and we didn’t get to the replay which Nth Melbourne won. So Michael thinks this is the rematch that Collongwood ( Pies) were supposed to win.

Setting up at AMMI stadium for the Grand Final entertainment 2010

See you next week on the net.