Wednesday, May 7, 2008 - Home for the weekend.

We brought Papa home for the weekend.  Picked him up Thursday evening after visiting some friends a few hours away.  Friday was busy.  I tried to fit in some school, then we headed into town for the big girls to help clean the church and the littl'ns and I went to the library.  Papa wasn't too happy about having to go with us and pouted about it.  We just can't leave him home alone anymore and he can't understand why.  Anyway, I finally talked him into letting me take him by the coffee shop.  Several buddies were there for him to visit with and he purked up a bit.  Saturday he got pretty grumpy.  There is just so much activity and noise here that he's not used to.  He got really tired.  He said they let him do anything he wants to at "that place".  I told him that was because they don't have little children around to worry about and they have more people to keep an eye on things.  They forgot to let all they're help know we had him and had one helper looking for him for an hour or more before she found out...  One of our neighbors works there and stopped by Sunday morning and gave him a bath.  He really purked up after that.  I was really afraid he would fight us about going to church, but he was ready to go and even participated.  That was so nice.  We came home, had lunch, cleaned up things, then went for a walk and took some pictures.  We had company show up.  They have 7 children.  We stayed mostly outside with them and he took a nap inside.  He just doesn't have much patience for the children.  I took him back Monday morning and he was definitely ready to go.  I think we have cured his whining for a while.  At least he has new stories to tell the other residents.  I was also able to get him to go through some of his books and things, and he decided to take several things with him, which I was releived of.  I'm sure some of his grumpyness was also from seeing his stuff gone through and dispursed.  I think he finally realized he will never be "home" by himself again.  I'm sure it was hard for him.  When hubby talked to him this evening, he said he'd be ready for another visit in about 6 or 7 months...  It was nice to have him, but it's so nice to know he's well taken care of in a place where he is happy and we don't have to worry about him...  I didn't do laundry or any real housework while he was here, so I wouldn't be stressed trying to keep up with him and chores.  I'm still really tired anyway.  Just trying to make sure he's not getting in trouble and that he is getting his meds and all is quite a bit extra.  I'm just taking it as easy as possible and trying to catch up on laundry and stay caught up with school right now.  We'll all get rested up and recuperated soon, I'm sure.  Hopefully we didn't wear him out too much and he'll be up to a camping trip sometime this summer.