When the cat's away…

For the past 7½ years my mom has been my main caregiver and is the one who is in charge of doing the majority of my care. When we are doing something physical for me that I can't do for myself, like dressing and bathing, it's a two-person job and my mom is always one of those two people. Things aren't always "hands-on," but I do have to have someone around me 24/7 in case I need some assistance. 80% of the time, my mom is that person who is around to help me if/when I need it. 

The reason I'm giving you this background on my mom is to show you how vital she is to my care, and also to let you know how hard she works. She's never been away from me for more than 24 hours in the years since my accident…. until now, that is. My mom took her first vacation (without me) in more than seven years this past weekend. She left last Friday morning to drive to see her parents who live in Rochester, Minnesota. I'm glad she was able to have a little time off so that she could see her parents, brother Steve and his family, old friends and enjoy some weather that was a little cooler and less humid than what we're having in St. Louis right now!

You might be wondering who took care of me while my mom was away. My two younger sisters, Laura and Chandra picked up the slack. Chandra took time off work this past weekend, and Laura and her husband Brett (plus their little girl, Amy) stayed here at the house with Chandra and me. It's been a little strange to not have my mom around since I see her every single day, but I'm glad that she was able to get some much needed time off!

I thought it would be fun to have a Harry Potter movie marathon while my mom was gone because I've been wanting to watch all of the movies from the beginning for a while. It's been a long time since I've seen most of them. We managed to watch the first five, so I just need to squeeze in the next two, and then I will be ready to see the final the movie. 

I also used this weekend as an excuse to eat some yummy food. On Friday evening we had Imo's pizza for dinner. Imo's is a pizza place that is exclusive to St. Louis. It's kind of an acquired taste, and I remember not being too crazy about it the first time I had it, but now I actually like it. Imo's pizza is thin crust pizza – extremely thin crust pizza. It's almost like pizza toppings on a saltine cracker. To get your fill you basically have to eat half a pizza.

On Saturday we got Chinese food for dinner – sesame chicken, chicken with garlic sauce and vegetables, Mongolian beef, crab rangoon and eggrolls. I had a little of everything and it all tasted so good!

On Sunday my sister Laura made chicken curry for dinner. I always hear people talk about curry, and I've always wondered what it tastes like. SO, Laura said she would make it for me and I was able to experience curry for the first time yesterday. I was worried I wouldn't like it, but it was actually pretty good. Not my favorite, but not bad, either. I'm glad I was able to try it.

It was a really fun weekend, but I'm glad to have my mom back!