I'm back from CA- what a trip!

It was a whirlwind kind of trip. Catch phrase for this trip has been...

"you've got to be kidding me"

My daughter and I started our journey in the wee hours of the morning (3 am mountain time). It's been a long 4 days and I'm glad to be back in my home in South Dakota.

I was on a mission to get some things done. Although my main goal was to visit the folks, I was also on a mission to get myself some fancy dress up clothes. I tried on some items but I really didn't care for the clothes out there. They we're "me". I figure that I can always buy fancy dress up clothes after we move to England...clothes are clothes, right?

I did manager to spend 4½ hours in the ER with my mother and daughter. You see, my mother hand cut her finger (when? I do not know) but damn if it wasn't infected! It was something to see, eeew! In the end she had to have her finger cut open and the puss drained out (nice huh?) and now she has it all wrapped up with surgical gauze packed into the wound. Hannah was a trooper though all of it and my Mom pretty patient with the nurses and doctors- it was me who was pinging off of the walls. I hate hospitals with a passion! I'm also not very good at waiting. I'm one of those people who likes to go in, get it done and leave.

I have yet to download (or it it upload?) the pictures from my camera from our trip.

We did manage to squeak in a visit to my Dad amongst all of the craziness that happened over the weekend. It was too bad that on this visit that he didn't recognize me or Hannah. He refused to open his eyes and my I put my hand on his shoulder he got very upset and turned to my mother and said "Tell her to stop pushing me down, tell her to get her hands off of me". It's understandable that he's like this. Alzheimer's is a terrible disease and I don't wish for anyone to have to have a parent go through this. He refused to open his eyes (another sign of him being frightened when he doesn't recognize anyone). My daughter Hannah was such a champ with all of this going on. Alzheimer's is a lot to comprehend for a 13 year old, but she followed my lead and did remarkably well.

I did manage to get in a visit with a very dear friend. Robin looks terrific! We had such a great visit and she promised that she and her husband Kevin would come to England to see us!

I've got 1001 e-mails to look at and I desperately want to take a nap. I've been up since 3 am and am I ever tired!