Wednesday, June 4, 2008

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PEGGY!!!

Just got home from a fabulous day at Peggy's. We had so many visitors today...friends brought flowers, smiles, laughter, and love all day long. The house was bustling with kids (Indy took the day off for "Puna Day", which should be a national holiday!). Sawyer, Indy, and Kala'i played while Karen, Eric, myself, and the caregivers organized, cleaned, and puttered around.

With the help of a few very hard workers (Pat G, Pokey, Julie Percell, Suzanne Ching, Ania Hawajska, to name a few) we cranked out A LOT of work on the house and Peggy's room. You will see many great changes and wonderful additions to the room and beyond.

Here is a list of some of the improvements:

We now have Menehune Water service in the room. We have a hot/cold water dispenser with water delivery every 2 weeks! The hot water side comes out boiling hot, so be careful...the great thing is that it is child-resistant and pretty safe even with the keiki around. You can use the hot water to make tea, hot cocoa, cup o' noodle, etc.

The Peg's Legs Cafe is up and running. You have to see it to fully appreciate it - but we LOVE it and have already put it to good use today. There is a lot more storage and lots of goodies for all of you. We put lots of ziplocks and tupperware for storage so that ALL goodies can be sealed tight...we want to keep this area clean and ROACH-FREE! Please take the time to clean up and wipe down the stainless counter after each shift. We bug bombed Peggy's room yesterday, so we have a head start on keeping it critter-free.

Ann Weers donated a new refrigerator for the room! Thanks Ann!

Peggy's bathroom is now spic and span! It was cleaned VERY thoroughly by Suzanne & Julie! We cleared the counter and now have a dish drainer there to rinse/wash dishes,etc. (NO big chunks of food down the drain please!)

Eric worked more on the speakers in the house...now the receiver in Peggy's room controls the music in the living room too!

We organized all of Peggy's sorting projects. All of her plastic bins are located in the corner next to the fireplace. THE RULE IS - if Peggy wants to sort/work on the bins, you can bring them in, but they must go back out at the end of your shift! NO MORE BINS IN THE ROOM! (Except her gift giving bins which are under the small table). We've been getting such great feedback on how comfy, spacious, warm, and inviting it is in the room, so I think Peggy can see how this will be a good thing :)

There is a plastic stack of drawers in the room to the left of the TV. This has the private hire drawer, a place for medical/delivery receipts, a place for current projects (since they always go missing), a drawer for office supplies, a drawer for people's business cards and contact info, and a drawer for stuff to read to Peggy...there is room to grow in this shelving unit, since I'm sure more things will come up. Maybe we'll have to add a "stuff to sort" drawer?

We set up a bin in Peggy's room for her birthday gifts that she has been getting today along with a clipboard list of who gave what...birthday cards are being hung on the new ribbon by the window (please clip out the address from the envelope, tape it to inside of the card and hang, you can throw away the envelope).

That's it off the top of my head...I think you'll notice many more little things that we've done as you go about your day at Peggy's. This really is a gift to you and a thank you from Peggy for all the hard work and love you give. We want to make Peggy's room and house a comfortable and enjoyable place for all of us to be.

I know we are all going to work hard to keep things nice and tidy. As my mom always told me - it is all about MAINTENANCE! Let's do a little bit every day and put things back where we found them. We can do it, Team!

Peggy really enjoyed all the activity around the house, all the visits, and all the fun. We all just hung out in her room, eating, drinking coffee, drinking wine...she spelled out to Marvel, "This is my best birthday ever". That made my day :)

Hope to see everyone on Sunday around 4pm for Peggy's potluck High Tea birthday party! Be there for the presentation of Peggy's surprise! You also have to come by to see the amazing photo collage that Kelly worked hard on for Peggy's birthday.

One more thing for your calendar - we have set the Peg's Legs Meeting at HCA on Thursday, June 26 from 6 to 8pm. Clarence and his team from Hospice will be there to discuss what their role will be, how we can best support Peggy, and ways they can support you, the caregivers.

One final note - I ordered more Tobradex from Ty - this time it will be double the Rx and will be delivered from now on by Pacific Health Pharmacy. They are delivering the Tobradex on Friday. Please remember when ordering meds from PHP that they take a few days to deliver, so take that into account.

Thanks everyone! I feel so proud of all our hard work and so blessed to be a part of such an amazing group of people. Thank you for all your kind words, birthday blessings, time, support, and love that you give to Peggy and all of us Chuns. Life is good.

No comments: