[I (Mona) am actually the one writing this blog for Al & myself, so I'll be using the first person most of the time even though we'll be sharing the experience].
We became preoccupied with other matters during March. The entire family has been involved in some big changes in my parents' lives.
On March 2nd, my dad fell, resulting in compression fractures of the two lower vertebrae in his back. He went into the hospital on the 5th of March, and I went down to help during his hospital stay and a few days after his return home. On the day I was to leave, my Mom said she thought they needed to make a change, that it was too difficult for them to maintain a big house and take care of themselves/each other without some help. Surprisingly, Dad agreed! So, a week later my sister Donna and her husband Mark took them up to Rock Spring in Apple Valley, a facility my sister Fran had found a few years ago. However, at that time, my parents weren't ready to make that move. Now they were. They liked it, signed on the spot, and we moved them in the next weekend, March 26th! We got a realtor, sold their car, and are still in the process of tying up loose ends and getting things together. Now Mom & Dad have their meals cooked for them, they can play pool, bingo, cards, board games, go on excursions, have transportation to appointments and shopping, access to a beauty parlor and barber shop on the premises, have housekeeping and linen service, as well as use of washers and dryers for free. My nephew lives about 3 minutes away, and my niece about 5, my sister Fran and brother-in-law Rob about 10. They've had more visitors in the 1 1/2 weeks they've been living there than they did in 1 1/2 months in their old home. So that's coming along well.
But that was just about the entire month of March.
We began making plans again this week.
We now have reservations for a couple of places in Italy. We made them for the Borghese Gallery in Rome, and the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel.
We also made them for the Uffizzi in Florence and the Accademia there (where the statue of David resides). That actually took quite some time. We began last night and had molto trouble on the website. It took forever, and after waiting (somewhat) patiently for what seemed like an eternity, just when we thought we had everything taken care of, the transaction was terminated! Not once, but twice! We gave up last night, and instead tried again this morning with better luck.
So, I think we're just about all set. We have airline and hotel reservations, reservations for art galleries, and car rental taken care of. Now all I have to figure out is how to pack....
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