Hi gals.... popping back in - life has been crazy and I haven't posted on the Golden Girls thread for just over a year now. All I thought was going to happen did come true. Dad (81 y.o. today) did lose his driver's licence this past January, so since then I was doing all the driving for their appointments, groceries, visits out, etc which was
difficult when you have a chronic disease, work full time, and have a household of your own. They got into a beautiful new suite in a Senior Residence with a large separate bedroom and good sized living/dining area. There is room for a queen sofa bed, a large upholstered chair & ottoman, two bookcases, and a 4 place dining set. They have a bar fridge and microwave, but all meals and snacks are provided in the main dining room. Good stuff too, like Eggs Benny, great homemade soups and sandwiches/veg platter for lunch, Mom's favorite Prawn Skewers, and Dad's favorite Chinese Buffet. Actually they've gained a bit of weight since they moved in in May, but not having the gardening and other household chores to do means they have to plan more exercise into their day. They are enjoying all the bus outings and meeting some new people, as well as live music and dancing on Friday's. They used to really 'cut a rug' back in the day, seriously good at Latin dances including Tango, Rhumba, Cha Cha, etc but for a few years they just didn't have the opportunities, after all when you live in a small town, where do you go to dance? It is good that they have moved into town though, as Mom's dementia has taken a downturn. She has dementia with Lewy Bodies (different from Alzheimer's, related to Parkinson's Disease) and she gets hallucinations once in a while. Usually they are benign (the baby at the end of the bed that requires Dad's T-shirt to wrap him in) but this time as they were getting ready to go down to breakfast she suddenly attacked Dad and tried to lock him in the bathroom and ran out afraid because 'he was so violent and mean.' (He really wasn't - not even in the same room with her at the time). I had to take her to their doctor who then sent admission papers to the hospital and she spent the night there. The next morning she had no idea why she was there and wondered why Dad hadn't come in to visit her, "I missed him soooo much." Luckily I used to work with people with brain injuries so I understood, and had brought him to the hospital where he waited, hovering around the hallways in case she still was hallucinating. I brought him in and BIG reunion. She came home with us just after lunch (which she didn't remember having a 1/2 hr before). Their doc adjusted her medications and so far the past couple weeks things have been much better and they are both getting more restful sleep too.
Hubby & I did 3 garage sales for them this past summer, (
**** I HATE GARAGE SALES*****) and then I sold the house for them myself w/o realtor - as soon as they had moved out I had 3 people asking about it since it is a very well maintained mobile home on a nice size lot and there is almost NO affordable housing in our area. The average house price here is just over $500,000. Yep, you read that right.
On the food & diet front: I had gained a bit of weight (stress eating, what can I say) but am back on plan with low carbing and have ditched the tortilla chips lol. Lost 5 lbs in the past two weeks. Bikini season in 1 month - heading to Isla Mujeres (E coast Mexico) for 3 weeks. Hoping to ditch the other 8 or so before then. It was so bad I had to buy new 'fat pants' and couldn't fit my old uniform pants
. Happy to say I am back into a few pairs of pants... not comfortably yet though, and I still can't fit into half of my clothes. But I
will get there again
.
Congrats to the maintainers!
And
Go Power sent out to all the rest working on dropping some!
Liana
commenting 
looking for an age appropriate thread. That's not dead. 
