First off, I want to thank all of you who expressed their sympathy :). After all, the last weeks took their toll on me, on my family. I knew that the day would come where we had no other choice than bring my grandma to the hospital. It was not pretty, there was screaming, tears, slamming doors, she didn't threw things though. However, we got through with it and now it's time to recover :).

Now, I will finally have a little more time to watch my favorite tv shows. Honestly, so far I've been a little disappointed with the new tv season. I had high hopes for Fringe, I thought it looked very promising, I love these kind of shows. But I just can't warm up with it. I don't like the stories, I don't like the guest stars, I think it's too slow... Okay, Walter is just great :lol:... Heroes is still a mess. What did they do to Dirty Sexy Money? It used to be funny :(... I think the only shows I have really enjoyed so far are Supernatural and The Mentalist...

And I'm waiting for Dollhouse and Reaper. The latter made me laugh a lot last season, so it can't be too bad. Dollhouse: It's Joss Whedon, it can't be bad, don't you think

Gotta go, see you around...

Have a nice week :)

Okay, it's five a.m., here I am, sitting tired in the cold. Can't sleep because it's simply too cold and unfortunately, I have to watch the door. Guess what, I didn't really choose to stay up all night and play the watchman. But then the usual story happens: the police rings at 2 a.m. because they found an old, disoriented, crazy woman :(. Unaware, you open the door (first mistake), you admit that you are related to that woman (damn I'm stupid) and then you even drive as fast as you can to your grandma to take care of her (I'm so stupid), and you know, she doesn't even recognize you :(.

At least, the police had already done a good job and had calmed my grandma down (they even managed to get our names out of her). I really think the police should consider watching old people, rather than ask the relatives to do it. Or put them in a prison cell so they can't run away. Hey, they don't know where they are anyway. It would be a lot easier for everybody, and safer.

Well, I gave them our adress and phone number just in case they find her again. It would have been a lot easier if my grandma hadn't thrown away our adress and number, but you put a list there, you look away and it's gone. I have no idea how she can do it, but she can. However, she has a hidden depot of outdated data somewhere and she replaces the actual adresses all the time.

After the police had said goodbye, I spent a great deal of time convincing my grandma to go back to sleep, I helped her put her nightgown on, and put her in her bed. Then I took her keys, her clothes and her shoes. You can't run away with no shoes, right?

And in the morning, we will call my uncle. And he will agree to watch her for the next days or not. If not, we will try to bring her to an old people's home, and it won't be pretty, because my grandma will get furious. And then they will probably not gonna take her like that. So the only other choice will be the hospital. I know my mom doesn't want that, but we just can't handle my grandma anymore, I can't and won't do it anymore.

I think she just got up again and is talking to someone :(, I should look after her.

Hope your weekend was not even remotely similar to mine. See you :)

Alright, I have a little less than 5 hours left of 2008, the food for the party is ready, the Mousse au Chocolat is waiting in the fridge, in a few minutes I can take the cookies out of the oven... looks good so far. Now, I just have to defend the sweets against my father, watch the neighbor's cat and change my clothes . And not to forget, wish you all a Happy New Year :)!

Well, here in Germany we don't wish a Happy New Year until the New Year has actually started. So for the time left in 2008, wünsche ich euch allen einen guten Rutsch (have a good start into 2009)! I hope you have a great time, don't drink too much, and don't forget to think of a few New Year's Resolutions you can break in 2009 :P and I really hope you will enjoy the New Year with all the good and not so good times!

Have fun!

See you next year :)

P.s.: Don't forget about the leap second!

Well, I can't really think of anything good that came out of 2008 (at least for me), so I will leave it like that.

Anyway, first off, thank you all for your wishes :), I hope you all had some great holidays yourself, got the presents you were longing for, ate a lot of good food, spent some time with your family and friends, well, just what you do on Chrismas :).

Unfortunately, my Christmas was not exactly what I was hoping for. Do you remember about my grandma? Bad news: For the last weeks, her condition has rapidly changed for the worse. We all knew it would be difficult to see her decompose, but we just can't keep up with the decline. You can look and see how she's losing it, her memory and abilities. Her character has changed, she is aggressive or foolish like a kid. It's difficult to recognize her anymore, not only her mind is fading, physically she is decomposing as well. There's just nothing left of that woman I've known.

One day she sits there, waiting for her husband (he died more than 10 years ago), or she tries to call her mother (also dead). Another day, she is devastated because she just realized that all these people are dead, and yet another day, you come to visit her, and she tells you she just talked to them :(.

To cut a long story short, she caused a lot of trouble on Christmas. It started on Christmas Eve, when she thought that some boys had come into her house and stolen her purse. Of course, no one stole anything from her, nevertheless, my parents had to look for her purse more than two hours, and it completely ruined that day's schedule. And it culminated in calling us at 3 a.m. on Christmas Day, because she thought she was not at home. My mom and I rushed to her home, though we were not exactly sure she was really there, on the phone she had described another house and named another adress. And it was bitterly cold.

Fortunately, she hadn't left her house. However, she had packed a few bags and was standing outside her house, waiting for us to take her "home". Please, tell me what to do with your grandma in the middle of the night, in the cold, who is convinced she is not at home :(...Nice Christmas :(...

Somehow, I don't think it was the last time for this year I had to deal with something like that, actually I'm convinced she is going to call us this night again. I just visited her, she was already lying in her bed and told me that my baby niece was there. She even had prepared a bed for her. And she was really confused when Julie was not lying in that bed anymore. When I said goodbye, my grandma asked me to take her with me. I tried to explain her that she was already at home, but she just laughed. But tomorrow, I will have to take her home :(

Now, how do I do that?

Ok, so I get in line with all the others sending Christmas Wishes. Well, I spent some time to wish everyone a great Christmas, but I will probably forget someone. This is far more easier :):

So to all my friends out there, Merry Christmas to you all (as far as you celebrate, if not, enjoy these days anyway :)). I hope you have a great time, enjoy your time with your family and friends, and I really hope you get a lot of great presents.

Here in Germany, we already exchange presents on Christmas Eve, so I'm already done :). Tomorrow, there will be more family, more presents, more food. Exhausting, but nice I hope!

*Huge Hugs*

Alright, still not in the right mood, the music didn't work :(... However, I baked Nussecken (nut triangles or nut corners?) and ate them all today: delicious :D!

After that, the real challenge followed: Finding gifts for the loved ones... and for the family, too.
Fortunately, Avi suggested to look for CDs and I did. However, I must have been confused by all the Christmas decoration and music I was forced to endure during the shopping trip, because I bought Wham's Last Christmas, and not just once :shock::lol:! Now, what do I do with that :lol:...

Maybe winterbehaviour wants them

ok, where is it? I haven't gotten into it yet, that's for sure...

And I haven't found any present yet :(...

So here's the thing: I need help, I need some ideas...

In other (tv.com) news: New layout (again) and I have a cute new level emblem

I like it :D and it was hard work to get there. Probably the last new level for this year... Can't believe there are just two weeks left. Well, 2008, you won't be missed, didn't like you at all.

Ok, that's for now, I will try to find every single Christmas CD I own and start listening right away. And then I will have to look for the greatest Christmas episodes tv has to offer, and watch them all. And if that still doesn't work, there is still hot wine punch :lol:!

See you later :) (and I hope you have a great rest-week and can enjoy the pre Christmas time a lot more than me)

...morgen werden wir uns freun!

Alright, it's not Christmas tomorrow, but hopefully Nikolaus will bring us some presents this night :D.

Well, I don't know about you, but we are well prepared. Boots are cleaned and polished, they just have to be put outside so the Nikolaus can fill them with presents and chocolate. Christmas cookies are baked, as well as our Stutenkerle. :shock: you don't know about Stutenkerle?

You are certainly missing something delicious :D!

I hope you have a great St. Nick's Day (or whatever you call tomorrow), spend some time with your family and when you have some spare time, please stop by and tell about your local Nikolaus custom :)

For the last weeks, I've been pretty occupied. No time to check new blogs, comment, keep track of the forums or talk to any of you :(... Unfortunately, my grandma had an accident and suddenly my family and I had to face a lot of trouble.

It started with a phone call a few weeks ago, when my grandma called to tell us that she fell and hurt her ankle. It was 6.30 in the morning and my parents and I thought all she needed was someone who would let the doctor into her house. So I took my mum's car and drove to her. And as soon as I saw her lying in her bed, unable to move, I knew that it was definitely not her ankle. Though my grandma wouldn't admit it, she obviously fractured her hip. There was no way around, she had to go to the hospital and needed surgery.

Well, now I could be a little more specific about the details of that particular day, like tell you about the paramedics who scolded me for waiting hours before calling them (I didn't! I called them almost immidiately, i didn't even know that my grandma fell in the middle of the night until she told the paramedics about it!), or I could wonder about how my grandma got back into her bed. Crawl? Actually, I don't wanna know or even think about it! I'm still trying to forget how the paramedics brought her downstairs... All in all, it was a tremendously stressful day, and it didn't help that no one else of my family was able to come and back me.
Next day, she had surgery, but soon we had to realize that the physical damage was the smaller problem. Everything went fine and my grandma was up and walking the day after surgery, but when I visited her the next day, she suddenly started to talk nonsense. She talked about visiting my other grandparents during the night, asked about her mother (who died more than ten years ago), she thought they operated on her foot not hip... it was just nonsense.

The doctors tried to calm us down. Sometimes, this can happen after surgery. Old people react with confusion, but this gets better after a few days. Well, we waited and it really did. Her condition improved and we thought we could take her back after a few weeks and go back to normal.

But then my mum found out that my grandma gave away 4000 Euros to some strangers the day before the accident.
As far as we know, two guys came to her and cleaned her driveway. These two told her a made up story about expensive cleaning powder and that she would now have to give them 4000 Euros in cash and she did. We also found a receipt, but we couldn't read the signature, there was no name of a company, it was a con, more precisely usury. FYI, 4000 Euros is more than 5000 U.S. dollars! My mum asked her about it, and my grandma still thinks it was okay.
Of course, My parents made a report and after that, we started to look around. What we found were more signs of dementia we missed before. Yes, we missed it, but my grandma hid them pretty well. It's an early stage, and right now, we have no idea what we will have to face in the near future.

Grandma just left the hospital, and we all hope she doesn't do anything stupid right now. Like fall again and break the other hip, or wander around, leave the house on her own...
But she is stubborn, more like a little kid, and she doesn't listen anymore. She tells fantastic stories and it's so hard to identify the truth anymore.

Yesterday, a commissioner visited her to ask to tell him everything she remembers about the day these two guys came and took the money. And she did. And a little more.
Right after that, he came to us. And he wanted to talk to me. Though we had warned him about her condition, the commissioner said she appeared to be clear-thinking. Her story appeared to be absolutely believable.
And this is what she told him: No, she did know the boys, she even described them and remembered where they live. That's why she wasn't worried and gave them the money. And by the way, a few months ago, her granddaughter (that would be me) visited her with these two guys and had lunch in a nearby restaurant.

Thanks a lot Grandma, you made me the prime suspect in this case! What a wonderful early birthday present, because my birthday, that would be today. I couldn't be happier!