One step forward and... nope, just one step forward.

It's true. Mom has taken a giant step, no,  a leap forward. Moving Mom back to her old and now spotless apartment was the best thing we could have ever done. The caretakers are incredible and are keeping both her and her house spiffy. Mom has even had her hair blow dried and styled! She has been dressing up and even adding accessories. This is, amazing. She hasn't cared about her appearance in a very long time. She went so far as asking to go get pedicures with me. Of course I'm on that. I can't say no to a pedicure. Her stomach aches have gone away for the most part and her appetite is back to normal. The best part of this all isn't the physical improvements though. My mom is acting like my mom again. She's happy and interested in life again. I was sick with the flu last week and not only did she try to comfort me, she told me after that she didn't want to call while I was sick because she knew I was probably sleep and W was probably busy with the kids. This is HUGE. Mom was calling me at 4am or 6am because she only had three rolls of TP left or the volume wasn't right on the tv. She was able to understand that there is a good time to call and a not so good time. Two weeks ago I was sure that she would need full time care in a locked facility in a year. If she continues on the path she's on, I can see her having another couple of years before we need to make any significant changes. You guys, I have my mom back. The Alzheimer's is still there and there are times where it is significantly worse but it's no where near as bad as it was weeks ago.

The other positive thing that happened was during the move out process from the ALF. I had given notice at the end of December because I had to make sure that everything with the caretakers was in place and her place was completely ready to be moved back into. The facility required 30 days notice so I knew that since we were moving Mom in right after Christmas, we would be paying double rents. Expensive double rents. We went over to start emptying her room at the ALF and at the very end, I decided to leave 3 boxes in her room. The staff was already chomping at the bit asking when she would be out even though I had just given notice earlier that week. I had a feeling that they would move someone in immediately, regardless of the fact that we had the room paid for for another 30 days. Here's why I'm pretty proud of myself right now. They DID go into her room after we left and got ready to prepare it for the next person. I know this because I received a 'courtesy' call letting me know that we 'forgot' some boxes. I told them we didn't need them any time soon so I was in no rush to remove them. January 2 I received another call from them. They wanted to offer me 'an exciting deal'. Apparently they had someone ready to move in and they would be so happy to offer to rescind the 30 days notice if I came and got the three boxes out. Deal. Had I taken all the boxes out, they would never have offered me the same 'deal'. They would have just moved someone else in and I would have been none the wiser. Pat pat, Self.

Anyways, minus the flu on the very first day of the new year, 2015 is looking like it's going to be an incredible year and I can't wait for all the amazing things to come. Happy New Year, Friends!