Al Zylstra

So, after the untimely but not unexpected demise of Lucky, our rescue budgie, Tiny, his roommate for the last 4 and a half years, was feeling very lonely.

I promised Alex that we wouldn’t replace Lucky, but, I saw how lonely Tiny was feeling.

So, on to Craiglist. Lo and behold; meet Blue. A little female and Tiny is smitten.

We may have to invest in a nesting box for them…. remains to be seen.

So, after almost 6 years of living in our house, we have FINALLY managed to finish our master bathroom.  We ripped out the old shower – a glorified phone booth sized shower that I could only stand and spin in.  Washing anything below the waist was an exercise in futility.  

The soaker tub was banished to the trash heap as well.  The functionality of said tub  was about as useful as a blow dryer for me.  The tub could only be filled halfway before the hot water tank gave up.  

The medicine chest was yarded out, too.  It was designed for people to use it who were, I can only surmise, members of the Liliput Guild in the Wizard of Oz.  

The walls were covered in both many, many, many layers of ugly wallpaper and paint – Alex tried his best to make the room livable, but, to no avail.

Below are the pictures of what it looked like when we moved in – 

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I know, right????  EEEK!

And here is the end result of 5 weeks of renovations

I am over-joyed with the results.

Happy 15th Anniversary to my wonderful husband.

After 5 1/2 years of NOT using our ensuite bathroom, the renovations have begun. Alex and our amazing plumber, David tore out the phone booth of a shower.

It took less than two hours to open up the shower, cap off the water and haul the shell away. It looks so much bigger in that space.

Alex ripped out the lighting valance over the vanity and pulled the medicine cabinet down earlier this week. He also managed to remove 7 layers of wallpaper.

This is the mirror that we are putting up instead of the ugly medicine chest.

I am getting very excited.

Last week, we found the new lights, towel bar and toilet paper holder

This is the overhead light.  The vanity lights are identical.

 

Had another whirlwind visit to Edmonton over the weekend.

Mom has been moved to a new facility: Lynnwood Extended Care Facility.  It is in the West End of Edmonton near West Edmonton Mall.

A very nice facility, to be sure.  Open and airy.  Brightly lit with lots of things to see and do for the residents.  They have atriums, small shops, cafe, gift shop and a variety of other stimuli including birds and an aquarium!

Before I went to see Mom, I checked out their website and they even had posted a You Tube video

It certainly did a lot to put my mind at ease.  Visiting my Mom is always a roller coaster of emotions.

After I got off the plane on Saturday, I drove to the East end of Edmonton and picked up my niece, Kathy.  I haven’t seen her in months and it was so great to see her.  We drove to see Mom and yakked incessantly all the way there.

When we got the facility, we parked and went up to Mom’s floor.  Mom is in a room close to the elevators and is sharing a room with another woman who is also suffering from Dementia.

Mom’s face lit up as soon as she saw me and Kathy. Her day was made!

We stayed for about an hour and a half.  When it was time to go, I could see that Mom was starting to get upset.  She begged me to take her with us.

My heart was breaking as I calmly explained to her that I couldn’t.  As much as I wanted to – this is where she is going to get the best possible care.

So, Kathy and I left – I could hear her in the background crying to the nurses, ” I don’t know where I am supposed to go.  Where am I?  Why am I here?”

That is the hardest part of this wretched disease.  It strips away your sense of self, reducing you to your raw emotions.  After everything that my Mom has been through in her life, this was not supposed to be the situation she was currently in.

Kathy and I left quietly and got down to the car.  We drove away in silence.  Kathy lost her own Mom to cancer three and a half years ago.  To see her Grandmother slowly spiralling into this pit of fear is hard on her.

So, I offered to buy lunch.  We needed a diversion.  So, off to lunch we went.  We had a great meal at Brown’s Social House.  We ate heartily, laughed at some of our family’s antics and reminisced about the great times we shared.

I drove Kathy home and headed off to Pat’s place in Fort Saskatchewan.  Staying with Pat during these visits is a huge relief.  He knows exactly what to say and do to make me feel better.  Normally, it is just a cup of tea and a hug.  Can’t ask for more than that.

Pat’s girlfriend, Barb was there, too.  She knows that I struggle with these visits and does everything she can to help me feel better.  Pretty awesome person.  I am so glad she is in Pat’s life.

We had a very quiet dinner, watched some TV and called it a night around 10.  I went down to Pat’s guest room in the basement, crawled into bed and was out like a light.  I slept soundly (well, as soundly as I can considering I am such a light sleeper with a tiny bladder).

I got up the next morning at 7:00.  Pat was up and making tea.  Hooray!

Barb got up shortly after.

We had a leisurely breakfast – bacon, eggs, sausage and potatoes.  Can’t ask for a better breakfast than that.

I got cleaned up, packed and headed out around 11:00.  I made it to Mom’s place around 11:45.  She was overjoyed to see me again.  We chatted for a few minutes.  I then got on the internet and did a video conference call with Nance and Tjalline – my cousins from Holland.

Mom was ecstatic to be able to speak Dutch again.  They yakked for about 10 minutes.  I could see that Mom was just so happy.

After we disconnected from the call, Mom and I chatted idly.

It was time to head off again.  This time, however, she was more resigned to my leaving.  I told her that Alex needed me at home and that I would be back before she knew it.

That seemed to work. She knows how much I love Alex and I need to be able to take care of him.  She accepted that.

I made my exit quickly and headed out of the facility.  I was at the airport by 2:30.  I had a quick lunch and went to wait at my gate.  The plane was loaded by 4:15.  We were up in the air by 4:30 and I was back in Abbotsford by 5:10 PST.

I got home by 6:15 and was greeted by two very happy puppies and my amazing husband.

A quick bite to eat, a little bit of TV and I was in bed by 10:00.

I have a little time before I need to plan my next visit.

So, after 5 1/2 years of enduring the master bathroom that is completely irrelevant to our needs, it was time.  Time to change it.

Alex and I discussed it a couple of years ago and we started looking for new fixtures that would transform the bathroom from a space that I only used to brush my teeth, to one that I could actually use.

A couple of weeks ago, I had to help set up a trade show booth for IRIS at the Vancity Women’s Expo in Cloverdale. I set the booth up fairly quickly and headed out.  Something caught my eye.

I saw this at the Bathfitter’s booth.  I had no idea that they did bathtub conversions.

I quickly grabbed their brochure and took it home.  Over dinner, I showed it to Alex and he was in complete agreement.  Our master bathroom had to go!

So, the next day, I called them, made an appointment and set the wheels in motion.

Their rep came over at the appointed date and time.  He did the measurements, showed us our options and came up with a quote.  To say that I gasped, is an understatement.  But, the price included doing EVERYTHING.

Alex and I are in a financial position that allows us to take on a small debt.  Well, not that small, but, definitely affordable on our combined incomes.

So, we agreed, signed the contract and away we went.

They called back yesterday and are going to be doing the conversion on October 31 and November 1.  Hooray!

To say that I am excited just doesn’t even begin to cover the emotions.  This is one of the last things we need to do to our house to make the renovations complete.  To have a master bathroom that I can use is going to be such a treat.

Will share pictures as we get them.

 

Today is a sad day in our household. Lucky, our rescued budgie has passed on.

We never knew how old he was but, we had the joy of having him our in our lives for 5 1/2 years.

Nykie, our previous furry family member, found him in our backyard on a cold, blustery day in March 2013.

He was soaking wet, shivering and in shock when Nykie brought him to Alex. Alex yelled for me to come and help.

I brought the little fellow inside, dried him off and put him in a box while we waited to see if he was going to survive.

I had a shower, came out and found him sitting on top of the box waiting patiently for me. I put my finger under his chest and he gratefully hopped up on my finger. I was hooked.

Off to the pet store went and spent almost $100 on a cage and supplies. Once he was safely ensconced in his new home, he dove head first into the food bowl and ate nonstop for almost an hour.

Our family grew that day with Lucky.

A few months after, we adopted Tiny, who was his companion until the very end.

Our home will be quieter now with Lucky’ s passing. We will miss him.

So, on our last full day in the Netherlands, we chose to spend it with Nance and Tjalline.  I am so glad that we were able to connect with these two amazing people.  They welcomed Alex into the Zylstra family with open arms.

Alex loves them, too.

Instead of shopping (a decidedly good thing – I was beginning to wear the numbers off my Visa), we did a tour of old Alkmaar and we were not disappointed.

Our first stop was a site where there were 3 working windmills.

It was so cool to go inside a working windmill and see how they worked and how the people who ran the windmills lived.

From there, we drove to a little museum for a quick cup of tea.  This place was AMAZING.  It was filled to the brim with all sorts of memorabilia and oddities.

From there, we drove around a bit more and was able to marvel at the quiet, the picturesque beauty of the Netherlands.

We then had a quick dinner and, alas, had to say our goodbyes.  But, rest assured, we will be heading back in May of 2019.

 

 

 

 

So, after two wonderful weeks in the Netherlands, it was time to come home. We got up fairly early had a leisurely full of tea and did our morning constitutionals in a decidedly unhurried manner.

We checked out of our hotel and hopped in the rental car. A quick 15 minute drive and we were at Schiphol airport. The hardest part of getting to the airport was getting from the car rental agency to the departure hates. Schiphol airport is MASSIVE.

We got to the gate in plenty of time, though. We were on the plane and in the air by 12:15. The flight was uneventful but, I got to see a number of movies: Deadpool 2, The Avengers, Infinity war, Book Club and the Greatest Showman. All very good movies.

We arrived in Toronto at 3pm local time, went through customs and made our way to the gate for our final leg home. I can’t wait to be back in my own bed, shoved over to the very edge by our two boys.

We arrived back in Vancouver at 8:00 pm on the nose.  We got off the plane and headed straight to the baggage carousel and within 15 minutes, we had BOTH bags and were heading to the parking lot to head home.

Life is good.

 

So today, Alex and I headed back to Friesland to go and see Sneek.  This is where my Mom was born and grew up.  It is a beautiful little community filled with old buildings and canals.

We got there after about a 90 minute drive – having to stop twice on the way there while on the Afsluitdijk.  One time on either end to let ships pass from one side to the other.  Each stop was almost 15 minutes long.  A lot of boat traffic goes through these tiny little channels that connect the Atlantic Ocean to the divided body of water.

Once we arrived in Sneek, we found a pay parking lot – sat there at the machine for 5 minutes trying to translate the instructions and then we were off.

We then went to find the Waterpoort – it is an iconic bridge that typifies Sneek.

We then wandered the side streets of Sneek for a while – had lunch at a great little bistro

After lunch, we wandered a bit more, found an AWESOME pair of pants and found some very nice pieces of jewelry for Alex.

Before we knew it, it was almost 4:30.  Time to head back to Amsterdam.  Traffic in the Netherlands is similar to driving in Vancouver, only amplified.  It took us close to two hours to make it back to the hotel.  By that time, I was no longer in the mood to drive to a restaurant for dinner.

So, we went down to the lobby grocery store and bought a couple of pizzas that I was able to bake in under 10 minutes.

Time to settle in for the evening.

Tomorrow, our last day in the Netherlands and we will be visiting Nance and Tjalline once more in Alkmaar.