October 2022 – Page 2 – David & LaReita Berky

Monday Sept 26 No school today – Teacher Development Day. Didn’t really do anything fun as a family. Though sleeping in until 9am was “fun” for Sam, Jacob & Ammon.

Really mostly for Sam who rarely gets to sleep in. I still had my morning walk with Eliza. Weight workout. Clients.

Grandma report:

Mom had a rough night. They said she was really anxious, like screaming and yelling. They had to give her a pill about 2:00 in the morning to calm her down. Then they couldn’t wake her at 7:00 when the aide came to the shower her.
So they let her sleep a little bit longer. Then got her up and showered. She ate a little oatmeal for breakfast in bed. Went to the salon to get her hair curled like she does each Monday.
I got there about noon. They said she only ate about a third of her lunch. Well just the vegetables and a little bit of a cupcake and that was it.
She was sleepy. She didn’t know who I was. Mostly garbled words. I could hardly understand anything she was trying to say. I stayed for a little bit and took her back out to the Commons area.

Tuesday Sept 27 Morning walk with Eliza – 3.5 miles. Client paperwork.
Sam and a few others were Student of the Month. There was a little recognition party for them and the parents in a small conference room with pizza and dessert for lunch. Each teach who nominated the kids gave a little highlight of why they nominated the student. I’ve attached Mr. Hurst’s spiel about Sam.
CJC clients in the afternoon.

Grandma report:

Mom was in bed at 7:00 when I went to see her. Happy and chatting away with her angel friends. Half of the time she was speaking Spanish. That’s a new one. She talked about being ready for some new adventures with her husband. She blew me a kiss when I was getting ready to leave.

I think I forgot to tell you last Tuesday Jacob, Ammon & I went around the neighborhood doing cub scout popcorn sales. We went to (Bishop) Slack’s house and saw him for the first time since his stroke. He looks like he is recovering well, but has no use of his left arm, and his speech is not back-to-normal, but you can tell he is really trying hard. He said in his slower speech that he’s going to try to make it back to work next week. Sister Slack gave me a side glance with the “Wishful thinking” look. I told him to keep working towards those goals! Sheesh – strokes suck. When your Grandpa Leavitt had his 1st minor stroke he had a blessing that he would make some recovery, but it would be difficult.

Then a week after he had the massive stroke in which blood filled 50+% of his brain. Sigh. Yeah. Your great Aunt Elaine asked her great-great grandma Mary Stucki Hafen her secret to a long healthy life (Mary walked across the plains pushing a handcart as a little girl and she died at 101 in 1980). This is what she said:

Take naps with your babies
don’t borrow trouble
eat very little red meat.
In a later conversation she added, also eat dandelions.

Wednesday Sept 28 Morning walk with Eliza. 3.17 miles. Dad had his annual check-up with the doctor who gave him the typical old-man advice: eat more fiber, take more walks. I went out to lunch with Denise Jamsa (your old violin teacher). She has posted something on Facebook about her mom being in memory care, so I figured it would be good for her to have someone to talk to who is in the same boat. PLUS I wanted to catch up with my old music friend/family! It was so good for both of us. We chatted for nearly 2 hours, and could have gone more.

Grandma report:

Mom had another fall around 8pm in the commons area. She fell out of her wheelchair. Don’t know if she was trying to stand up or just slid out. They didn’t say. Seems to be “okay”…as okay as mom can be.
This afternoon when I visited she was very wound up and anxious. Talking a lot but I couldn’t understand anything.

Thursday Sept 29 I didn’t have my typical morning walk with Eliza because I was on a FMF Operations Board meeting call at 7am. Dad helped a guy in our ward move – Nathan Davis. Anthony came over around 1pm to chat and talk about his proposal and honeymoon plans. Went on a long 3.76 mile walk with Eliza and E while Jacob was at swim practice. Julles went to the BYU football game (game not on a Saturday because of General Conference).
Grandma report:

I went over at 8pm, but she was already asleep in bed. The door was open and they had the TV on the classical music station.
I went back to the commons area and Kalani (CNA) asked, “did your mom live in Mexico?”
I told the nurse about our ward in PHX becoming a bilingual ward around 1997 and mom learned Spanish so she could speak with the members.
Apparently mom had been speaking more Spanish than English today! Kalani asked mom to speak English for her. But the other Hispanic nurses probably think it’s great!
Alzheimer’s causes holes in the brain. Perhaps the English language center is gone, but her Spanish language center is still intact? So interesting….

Friday Sept 30 Dad, James and Anthony went up to Fairview this morning to help work on the yurt. James and Anthony planned to stay overnight and come back Saturday afternoon.

I had an 8am client in the office. When we finished at 9am I wanted to hurry back home to make sure Ammon got off to school. After I finished my 8am client, I grabbed my therapy bag, locked the door, took one step and realized I locked my purse in the room WITH my keys to my car AND the room. Good thing I only live 1.8 miles away and it was a beautiful morning for a walk. I’m grateful I followed the impression to not wear my sandals to work this morning but to wear my tennis shoes. Also it was good that Jacob stayed home this morning (his legs hurt from swimming the day before – and didn’t want to do PE today – golf.) Jacob got Ammon off to school.

I Walked home and got the spare keys. Got Eliza and she and I walked back down to drive the car back home – just in time to get ready for my Telehealth sessions at home.

During swim practice I walked another 3.4 miles with Eliza. Total mileage for today = 7. When I came up to a street light in Provo, another dog ran across the street to see Eliza and nearly got hit by a car. The other dog was literally 1 foot away from being crushed. The owner had her on a leash, but didn’t have a tight grip because he was distracted talking with someone else, and his dog lunged out of his hands. So grateful for the driver who was fully paying attention. He and I chatted for a bit while the 2 puppies jumped around and played.

After swim practice took Jacob to the food trucks and got Big South Soul Food. With all your talk of bland Chilean country food, I won’t torture you other than to say you’ll have to try this food truck when you get back. There was a couple behind me in line who follow this truck wherever they go. The couple lives in Lehi!

Went to the MMHS vs. Springville football game. Ammon wanted to pick up trash again. I came to sit next to Sam in the pep band to give him some dinner. It was half-time and the band director (Mr. Hurst) was wandering through talking to the students. He saw me and said this is the only way you can see Sam is to come sit with him in a band? I said yes this is how I know what he is doing. For instance I just found out tomorrow he is going to the demolition derby in Logan with the MMHS demo car. Good thing he also has a detailing job in Logan to make some money that day as well! Sam told me he also went to the junk yard 2x today after school to pull a starter off a junker to put it on the demolition derby car. The first one he got and brought back someone busted when they accidentally dropped the engine. Then he had to go back to the junk yard to pull a 2nd starter. Fortunately it came off easily so it wasn’t a major pain. But he proudly showed me the back of his shirt covered in dirt and oil!
The football game was painful to watch. Interception after interception including a 91 yard touchdown by Springville. It’s hard to see any team so deflated, especially MMHS. MMHS 20, Springville 74. The last 3 minutes of the game it looked like Springville was going to make another touchdown (and hit 80), but MMHS finally got fired up and prevented it.

Saturday Oct 1 Didn’t do a morning walk. Since Sam took the Prius to Logan, and Anthony left his car at our house when he carpooled with James up to Fairview, I needed to fill up Anthony’s car with gas or me to drive to Heber.
Jacob had a swim meet this morning in Heber. I took Ammon with us. I saw my former cello student, Brooke, along with her husband, parents who were there to cheer her daughter (Ruby), who is the same age as Jacob. So interesting to see how life marches on, yet stays the same. Jacob did great and in one of the heats was 1st place.

50 Back old 40.31Y / new 35.82
100 Medley old 1:32.55 / new 1:22.5?
100 Breast old No Time / new 1:36.36
50 Fly old 46.04 / new 37.32

He wanted Sushi Burrito as his pat on the back. We also met up with someone who I ordered some authentic Chilean beef empanadas. Ground beef with sauteed onions and hard boiled egg in the middle. Probably jazzed up for the Americans? (Pictures attached)Dad and June chopped up jalapenos while I was at the swim meet so when I got back I could make “Cowboy Candy”.

Grandma report:

I sat with mom during the afternoon session of conference. The first 30 minutes 2 of the residents were talkative (their normal mumbling), and mom in her gentle way kept saying with a smile, “shh, I can’t hear”. She was alert the whole time, watching and smiling at the speaker on the TV.

James and Anthony got back around 4pm exhausted, but with some great pictures and time-lapse videos of the yurt. It’s pretty much finished! I’ll ask them to send the finalized videos.They had some of the Chilean beef empanadas with my new batch of cowboy candy and said it was FAN-tasTIC.

The demolition derby event with the MMHS car didn’t have a high school heat, but they were combined with others. Payson HS had 2 cars and Provo HS had 1 car. MMHS derby car didn’t do too well, the cable to the battery terminal came off at the early part of the smash-up and the driver (Aubrey) couldn’t get it back on. This demo derby was recorded by “Gladiators of Steel” who are putting together a documentary about how demolition derby’s are the best form of sport. I’d send you these links, but it’ll probably be blocked for you. I’ll send it here anyway – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1dRAINPcnk (Trailer)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXH8Sq5R6Y8 (No participation trophies)

Sunday Oct 2 Morning walk with Eliza 3.15 miles. She is SOOO smart. When we got to the dog park at 7:30am, our usual weekend friends weren’t there. So Eliza and I circled around the block. When we got again to the corner, she didn’t see the dogs, BUT she recognized their car and IMMEDIATELY began pulling like an Iditarod sled dog. They had fun playing for about 15 minutes, but the cold wet grass brought their play to an end. Eliza went back to the gate and sat there waiting for me!

Listened to Conference in the kitchen while cleaning up and making 2 dozen cinnamon rolls. Anthony and Gracey came over to watch Conference with us. Dinner was leftovers. I was done cooking! We actually are at 300 temples!168 operating53 under construction5 in renovation74 announced

I love going to the temple!