Cindy's Life Updates with Frontotemporal Dementia

Enter Into Their World

August 15, 2014

One thing I have learned is the best way to connect with my mom is to ENTER into HER WORLD. I don't stay in my world when I am with her.

Our worlds are two separate worlds.

My world is to complicated for her.

Her world is simplified in her mind, fun, silly, and care free. A TV and movie world. A world about the current weather situation. All about her cat, Tiger world. All about her awesome neighbor, Bob world. All about what her neighbors are doing world.

I realized she will never be able to enter my world again. She is no longer the person that can enter my complicated world. I am able to enter her world and I will continue to do that because that is the best way to connect with her.

My advice to anyone is if you want to connect with my mom or others in this situation... then enter into their world. I promise you that you will have fun and laugh!

Jon entered her world and sent her this picture in a text because I took the first picture above of our mom & weather for Jon to see. Jon sent our mom this text back and our mom loved this picture and sat there laughing and laughing. It made her smile and laugh.

This is a great example of entering into her world.

My positive note of the day and lesson from yesterday is to.......

ALWAYS LOOK UP ⇑ & the STORMS WILL ALWAYS PASS BY

and in this case the storm passed by VERY QUICKLY, as Jon's picture was taken the same day.

Cindy's Lunchtime

August 15, 2014

My mom's meals that she prepares for herself consist of corn dogs for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. She use to warm up other frozen dinners like lasagna and chicken pot pies for dinner, but it has changed to just corn dogs. I believe this is because corn dogs are faster to warm up in the microwave and easier for her to prepare & easier for her mind. I have seen this change in the last couple of months.

She still warms up a corn dog for breakfast every day and has a root beer with it.

I have started to take my mom a packed lunch for her to eat for lunch and eat throughout the day for snacks. I could tell she thought this was strange at first, but now she has gotten use to it. I can tell she enjoys the lunches and starts snacking on things when I am there. She really loves snacking on almonds and carrots.

When we would just buy her groceries from the store she would eat and eat a whole box of something in a day and wouldn't know how to manage the box. She doesn't know when she is hungry EVER. She doesn't know what she wants to eat EVER. If I ask her things she will just shrug her shoulders and have a lost look on her face & look clueless. This is what FTD has done to her.

I had to ask my mom to smile for the above picture because she didn't know to smile for the camera. She is getting a little camera shy too and at times doesn't like me taking her picture.

This was my mom's lunchtime yesterday! She loves her lunchtime at home with her and Tiger.

Best Day of Cindy's Life - Every Day!

August 02, 2014

My mom's favorite song is "Best Day of My Life" by American Authors.

Every time she hears this song she starts dancing and singing. I was able to capture one of her happy moments to this song on video, while we were on a road trip to Jackson Hole. Paul and I prepared ourselves with a CD, made just for my mom. We had this song on the CD and would listen to this song over and over again when we would want to cheer her up, during our vacation. This song is magic for my mom!

Watch this video, smile, and remember to have the best day of your life, starting NOW and every day!

Lily's Blessing Day

August 02, 2014

Lily DeYoung was blessed last month and we all had the opportunity to attend the blessing. Paul and I drove my mom up to the blessing. The blessing was at 9 am in Syracuse, UTAH. Jon did a lovely blessing and Jamie bore her testimony.

Jamie and her family prepared a nice breakfast meal for everyone afterwards to have at Jon and Jamie's home. Paul, my mom, and I stayed for a few hours after everyone left.

Paxton taught us how to catch grasshoppers in his backyard. Sammy was catching them with us too. Macy and Savannah were having fun in the house playing together.

Paxton even got Nate bending down catching grasshoppers!

Happy Blessing Day, Lily! Your Family Loves You!

Hugs and Love,

A Cindy Interview - Part 1

July 08, 2014

I spent some time with my mom yesterday at her home. I told her I was going to do a fun easy interview. I asked her some questions and as I asked her questions, she answered them, and memories would come pouring back to her.

Here is some of our interview:

I asked her what her favorite color is. She had a hard time with that wide of a question so I had to break it down and ask her what her favorite color to wear is. She told me her favorite color to wear is PINK. She looked at her clothes and said "but I'm not wearing it today."

I asked her what her favorite color in flowers are. She replied that she loves red roses.

I asked her what her favorite flowers are - she said LILIES. I asked her if she likes sunflowers (she said "sunflowers are fun, I don't have them here".) She went on to tell me a story about how Linda Potter brought her a bouquet of lilies at our home on Island Way after she returned home from being in the hospital. She said the bouquet was pretty and it meant a lot to her.

I asked her what is the nicest story she could think of Linda, her sister - Her reply Linda gives me birthday presents and stuff. I asked my mom "how about helping you go to Hawaii?". She agreed with that and went on about stories of Hawaii.

I asked my mom what is the nicest story she could think of Jean - Jean helped save my life. She had told me the story earlier in the interview about her being in the hospital to get her gallbladder removed when she went into code blue. Jean also asked President Faust to give her a blessing. This experience meant a lot to her. She definitely said Jean saved my life and nodded her head about it.

I asked her what her favorite food was. She kept thinking. I then told her if she was on a stranded island and could only eat one food for a year... what would it be? She told me they don't have food on a stranded island. She then told me that she would pick LASAGNA or corndogs. I told her we would take a microwave for her. She said or else she would have to put it out in the sun to cook. She thought that sounded gross to do.

I asked my mom the nicest story she could think of me and her reply was "you take me places and clean my house".

I asked my mom the nicest story about Jon. She was thinking so I said "is he nice?" she said "yes". I said "does he have a nice family?" She said "yes". I said "does he have cute kids?" She said "yes". Then she said "Jon was good in jr. high." I asked her "in what way?" She said "with his grades."

I asked my mom about Nate next and she remembered the story of her and my dad driving to Oregon to pick up Nate and me because Nate's car broke down up there. We went to see big trees in California she said. I told her we saw the Oregon coast too. We then talked more about this adventure. It was fun of her to remember this event in her life.

That was the end of the interview. She looked out the window a lot and it was hard to keep her focused, but it was a lot of fun to interview her. I plan to do it again in the future, to see what new answers, I can get out of her.

Stewart Family Reunion at Wheeler Farm

July 08, 2014

My mom had been anticipating to go to the Stewart Family Reunion ever since she received her invitation in the mail. She couldn't wait for June 28th to arrive.

We had a great time spending time with our family members that we know well and sitting at the same table as them. It was fun to see some familiar faces and to see some new faces & meet & greet relatives.

The BBQ beef sandwiches were delicious and went great with all of the great pot luck dishes that were brought by everyone. There were also delicious sheet cakes and cookies that we enjoyed eating. My mom enjoyed the strawberry white cake.

My mom, Sammy, and Savannah were really excited to go see the animals on the farm. My mom petted a cow and noticed how smelly they are.

We saw horses, goats, cows, sheep, pigs, ducks, and more on the farm. My mom, Sammy, and Savannah had a great time looking at the animals together.

We took an ice cream break and grandma bought Sammy, Savannah, and herself some ice cream to cool off on the hot day in the sun.

The girls and grandma wanted to go on a wagon ride. Grandma wanted to pay for the ride. Grandma was surprised that we didn't get to see any animals on the ride. We saw scenery on the ride. It was very hot during the ride in the sun, but we had a lot of fun riding on the tractor wagon ride together as a family, as you can see by our fabulous smiles.

Aunt Linda also was a great photographer this day and took so many great pictures of the fun on the farm. I will have to add some of those pictures in, as soon as I get those downloaded. Thank you for always taking pictures and sending them my way!

Families Are Forever! I love my family... including my aunts, uncles, and cousins! I'm so grateful for you all! I know that my mom is so grateful for all of her family, as well.

Cleaning Up The Yard (Video Included)

July 01, 2014

Today was a fun, clean up the yard, kind of day. It is fun to watch my mom have so much joy and passion in taking care of her yard. She loves to water her yard daily & she has managed to get her grass really green this year. Just like it was last year.

My mom had a really nice neighbor kid start mowing her lawn yesterday out of nowhere. My mom was sitting on her couch, when she heard the sound of a lawnmower. She was surprised to see a boy mowing her lawn. He mowed all of the front yard except the front strip by the mailbox. His lawnmower broke, while mowing the lawn, so he wasn't able to finish the front strip in the front yard and backyard.

My mom got an idea today to start her lawnmower up to finish mowing her lawn. She had fun mowing the backyard and we got some footage of her mowing the lawn. She mowed most of the backyard and then I helped her finish it up. Paul helped mow the front strip for us.

My mom has also had a new thing for a couple months where she likes to have her garbage can cleaned out. She also likes to air out her garbage can because she thinks it is pretty stinky.

We had a fun day taking care of the yard in the heat. Enjoy watching my mom in action in the video. Nothing slows her down these days.