Sunday August 27th, 2012:

Quick little visit with mom.  The day started with me 'Kathy Proofing' the pictures in her room.  Defined; that means putting them out of reach for her to take down.  It gave her room additional color and pizaz.  I took Mr. Poopers (aka Chester) on our visit and he brightened the eyes of all of mom's fellow neighbors and mom.  However, as many of you know, Chester is a a 'chicken s__t' and runs away and hides and freaks out when a stranger comes to pet him.  We need the Dog Whisperer to perform his magic on Chester. 
We took a quick trip to the local park and we walked until we ran into a creek crossing that mom was not comfortable with.  With Chester with us, I could not dedicate to both at the same time....

Mom is the greatest and we were walking out of the park she insisted that she wanted to buy me something.  Never to miss an opportunity I mentioned that the Porsche Carrera 911 S was voted Car and Drivers Best Driving Car of 2012.  Mom agreed that Jim should buy it for me.  Retail with Turbo $123,500.  Jim you better get to work on that. 

We have posted two (2) quick videos from my I-phone which is limited in size to email to about 45 seconds to a minute.  Hope you enjoy!!  I think the PING-PONG video of mom and Jim is better.

Till next time

Ping Pong Champs

Update to post from yesterday.....We were able to post the ping pong video  :)
Check it out in yesterday's posting below!

August 2012 with Kathy

Good evening to the millions following Kathy's blog,

We have been trying to post a video of mom with no luck.  Forgive us we are still new to 'blogging'.  How long are you going to let me get away with excuse?

Friday, August 10th, Mr. James flew into town and was able to spend a number of hours with mom (and me).   We 'rocked' the house and gave Aegis a new definition of Reilly Pride.  Jim and mom were engulfed in an exciting battle of Friday Afternoon Ping Pong which I was privy to witness.  The table was 'hot' and the action was intense.  There is this nice big room that has 'the table' along with a crisp 42" Flat screen and a large table with seating for ten.  We flipped on the 'tele', SportCenter of course, and sat down for a few games of Gin and Gin Rummy.  The action again was overwhelming.  A couple of walking tours ended out the evening and Jim and I left mom with her cohorts for the night.

James made a very observant statement that has stuck with me the past number of days.  He said, "Who would of thought we could spend three hours with mom and not have her yell at us once".  This simple statement cut to the bone.  Mom, aside from her memory, is having the time of her life; in her own mind, of course.  She is almost always upbeat and eager to be on the move.  It would be nice to watch a 2-hour movie with her, however, I don't believe that is happening very soon.  She would have to really be into the movie.

Sunday, August 19th, I stopped in early (it has been over 100 degree the past fourteen days) and I wanted to press my luck by bringing in the baseball gloves and real, yes real, baseball for a morning of catch.  We started across the street in an open parking area.  It went off without a hitch, so we moved to the back courtyard at Aegis.  Residents are 'stunned' at Kathy's muscle memory and ability to continue doing things like ping pong and 'catch'.  It was a blast.  Mom continually wanted to stop and get grandpa to join us.  That would have been awesome, if at all, possible.  For all of you who don't know, mom was the parent who most frequently took me, and Jim, out for 'catch' when we were learning to play baseball as young men.  I wanted to return the favor.

I can only report that she is doing pretty darn well.  Fitting in and enjoying the ride.  And then forgetting it...