Louis Dean's Happy 89th Birthday!

 We celebrated Louis Dean's 89th birthday this weekend!

His precious granddaughter, Chandy, and her family drove down from Snyder, Texas on Saturday.

She brought her famous enchiladas - both chicken and beef - along with refried beans.

This is Chandy and Bella...

This is Piercyn!

Say hello to Jaxon Dean - named after his great grandfather!

And Chris is Chandy's amazing husband and so much like Louis Dean!!

He's always working and can fix absolutely anything!

He worked on the electric problem I've had in the gazebo and determined it was wear and weather and will be back after the holidays to get it all fixed up for us.

(Good to know that Louis Dean was not at fault! He gets blamed for stuff he didn't do!)

Chris is so much fun!!

Doesn't like having his picture taken so he makes crazy faces.

We love this guy!

The boys have a natural bent toward the piano.....

They made some pretty music!

Granddaughter and Granddad - together again!

Chandy was great and she and Louis Dean talked and visited and just loved on each other.

Memories and magic!

Sunday was his actual birthday and the florist delivered flowers from Amber.

They have a tradition of giving each other roses!

We ordered pizzas Sunday afternoon and then sang Happy Birthday to Louis Dean and ate carrot cake and ice cream!

He enjoyed all his cards and texts and messages!

Chandy played music with him earlier in the afternoon and he loved that!

My handy man Hector was at the front door at 9:00 Sunday morning and while we were celebrating, he was building a new gate!

Louis Dean and I had discussed this but, of course, he didn't remember that.

 Hector left at 4:30 and Louis Dean went over to see the new gate and had a meltdown because the gate opened the 'wrong' way.

It can now open in all the way to the right and I thought I did a good thing.

Louis Dean says this is a lefthand gate and he was angry and frustrated - and I can understand that.

Back in the day he could have put this gate up in an afternoon but not anymore.

Hector did a great job and I loved what he did - all in the space of six hours!!

Next Sunday he will be back to repair the fence to the left that is eight inches off.

Hector is a good guy and so is Bruno.

Bruno is coming tomorrow to take down two dead trunks of the Yaupon Holly tree.

Anyway, when Louis Dean melted down and stormed out to the backyard - I said our goodbyes to Chandy and family and told them I needed to go out and calm him down.

I was a little afraid he would try to take the gate down so I stayed with him until I felt it was okay to leave him. He was taking the old gate apart to save the boards when I left.

Which I did and then when I got up this morning and went out to admire that beautiful gate - I discovered Louis Dean had piled up the old boards from the old gate right in front of the new one preventing it from opening!

Life is always a challenge and I stacked the boards somewhere else - not that LD will ever notice.

Things are changing here as Louis Dean's dementia and Alzheimer's disease continue to progress.

I really had no idea just how fragile we both are now.

As much as Louis Dean loved being around family, it was a little too much sensory overload.

Lesson learned.

Life never stays the same. 

Change is always happening.

Visits with family are important and we will need to navigate them to be less stressful for Louis Dean.

At 89 Louis Dean is not going to be getting better and things will continue to change.

My purpose here is to take care of him and love him and help him and keep him as happy as I possibly can. I realize I can not make him better but I can continue to love him.

Looking forward to a new week and I will continue with my Christmas decorating.

The den is now officially DONE and I am so excited about it.

I think it's the best I've ever done!!