A very sad week

This has been a very long sad week.  My Dad, Jack Frost Hood, passed away quietly and peacefully about midnight last Monday morning.  He was 81 years and nearly 8 months.  Daddy was born in Burkburnett, Texas to Frank M. Hood and Lena E. Yeary.  He loved golf and trout fishing.  He was a great coach for the Kids Inc. football teams.  Those boys called him “Coach Hood” even until his death. 

Yes, his name was Jack Frost.  That was such a joke all of his life.  He was named after uncles, Charles “Jack” Hood and Frost Yeary.  Frost was my Great grandmother’s, Ada Maude Yeary, maiden name. Wonder if Grandmama even thought of that when she named him?  The one thing my grandmother always said about Dad was that his shoulders at birth were WIDE and he weighed ten pounds!! 

We had a wonderful funeral on Wednesday.  It was the most uplifting and fun ceremony.  My younger sister, Cynthia, had written down some the the things Daddy had told her about his children in a his last days.  She is a great writer and it was just so moving!  Molly, my youngest sister, and I were very moved by it.  As was the rest of the family I think.

He is at peace now and dancing in Heaven with my Mother.

Thanks for listening.

Changing focus

I have been a bit morose and sad lately so I thought I might change it up.  First let me tell all of you who have commented on my Dad and are sending prayers, thank you.  He is slowly slipping away and I just want peace for him now.

I have tried to do some scrapping again lately.  Hard to get into it and hope to have a digital kit for you soon.  It is nearly ready but needs embellishments and I just don’t do those well.  Not because I can’t but I just use so few!  I reserve my space for LOTS of photos.  Because as most of you know, I take LOTS of pictures.  Especially of clouds and scenery and my grandsons.  Of course, they are number one in my pictures. 

Here are a few layouts I have done lately.  I am going to go back to sharing here and do away with the scrolling slide show at the top.  I may add it to the sidebar just because I can!  Big grin!!  :))  Forgive me if I have shared any before.  I am old.

Zachary’s birthday present – yes, he liked it:

Kit is mine; fonts Fonts Verdana and Vale Shadow

It’s all about the hats of course:

Kit Boy Zone by April Mousse and Hanulienka; red paper and file tag mine; font Verdict SF

Champs (what, more orange?) from the soccer tournament this summer:

Barbara Kern Kickit Kit; font Cairo SF

Mooooo, I think that says it all:

My background, ScrapKitty overlay edge, font Tennessee SF

Painters (painting of course!):

My paper, elements from ScrappingCop, fonts Toledo SF and Trajan Pro

Last one, I promise! For now.

Playing on the Sidelines is Zane, well, playing – on the sidelines!:

kit from Fran - Little Miss Moon; fonts Bondoni MT and Digs My Hart

I am trying to work on layouts from my vacation pictures.  Boy, that is going to take some time.  But will share a few of those next time.

Night all.

This week with our Dad

Daddy is very very ill and not expected to last through the weekend.  Of course, that is God’s final decision.  However, after last week in the hospital AGAIN with pneumonia, his body is doing a fast shut down. He has had pneumonia three times in the last three months.  The last two times have been very unkind to his mind.  He knows who we are but not where he is or why he where he is.  Boy, does that make sense?  OK, you get the picture.  So after this last bout it was thought he may not be able to go to dialysis. 

He went to dialysis Monday and came home really confused and out of it.  Dad called me, or rather I called him, and he told me to come get him.  Apparently he had gone to the funeral home and could not get out.  Told me he had had a couple of drinks and now just could not find his way out.  I talked to Daddy for 30 minutes and just could not shake him from this story.  I finally had to hope that the meds would help him to relax.

Tuesday he was really pretty much out of it.  I watched him and decided to call his kidney doctor and ask his opinion on continuing dialysis.  He said that really it was doing more harm than good at this point.  Daddy just was not tolerating it.  My sisters and I along with the doctor’s advice decided to stop dialysis treatment.

Dad has also developed extreme peripheral artery disease. His legs and feet hurt all the time.  His heart is failing. Poor Dad.  He is miserable.

Hospice has been called in and they are taking care of him – and us.  He is now taking morphine to control his pain.  Of course, he seems to be sleeping a lot but that is to be expected at this stage in his health.  They are saying it is not really the morphine as it is in very small amounts.  It is the dying process.

Bless his heart.  We are praying for a peaceful end and a new beginning in God’s hands.

Thank you all for all of your wonderful prayers and thoughts at this time.

Whoa, time got away – again

I have been so lax at posting but family is taking it’s toll. Better blame it on someone besides my laziness! 

Dad is back in the hospital.  He has pneumonia again, or maybe it is still.  He has never been off the antibiotics.  Apparently Dad has 25% of his lung capacity left due to COPD and emphysema.  That 25% is full of pneumonia.  He is refusing to eat, wants to die, is being very very ugly to friends and family.  My sister sent me an article about this Sundowners Syndrome.  He is acting just like those with Alzheimer’s do but it is also said to affect dementia.  Poor Dad is seeing things and hearing voices too.  This has been a real eye opening experience for all of us.  He will probably go home from the hospital in a couple of days but the doctors say he will be right back.  Apparently they feel this is probably going to be fatal at some point.  It is very sad but at the same time, I hate seeing my Daddy like this.  He is so unhappy and just wants to be able to rest.  It is in God’s hands.

So enough moaning and groaning.  Life does go on.  Football (flag) and soccer for Zachary.  And it is DARN cold here.  We sat at games last weekend in the foggy misty windy cold like good parents and grandparents.  I am already dreading this weekend.  Forecasts are for cold and wet again.  Sigh.  But I will do it!  Of course, I may have to take Zane to the car to sit at times.  He hates the cold.

      

My sister, Molly, got me hooked on a game.  On my phone.  Playing her.  Now I am also playing my nephew, John, and a friend of Molly’s.  The game is called Words but it is really Scrabble.  It is an iPhone app. You can get it free but for 99 cents there are no adds.  I wait on pins and needles for the next play!  Sad what my life has become huh?

Ross is still diligently – and driving me crazy at it – searching for the perfect travel trailer.  Oh, we find several, but they are usually at least 300 miles plus from home.  We had decided to go this week to look at some but then of course Dad got sick.  I think it will be awhile before we can truly look and not worry the whole time we are gone.  Today we talked about going to Disney World for spring break.  Ross, Zane and I would leave a few days earlier and then Mike, Kathleen and Zachary could fly into Florida.  School you know!  And since we live at least three days travel from there, we need two weeks or all fly.  Decisions, decisions.  And money, money!  I’ll let you know of course what we decide.