Oom Paa Paa

The best time was had on October 13th with plenty of toe tapping during Oktoberfest with lots of polkas and other lively tunes played by our wonderful interactive Tom Novotny on his accordion. We had pretzels and nice cold beer. Residents wouldn’t know that though because after running to the liquor store for the beer most everyone chose to have a snort of brandy instead.

Potatoes in the Pumpkin Patch and Halloween Antics

As it is harvest season have you ever had a potato bop against your pumpkin or go screaming past it? Well here at North Shore Living we sure did. On a wild Wednesday residents gathered with our faithful volunteers Sharon Brenner and Ken Netland to have a potato rolling contest. The goal was to get their not round potato nearest to the pumpkin in the center of the room.

All the potatoes were named and some potatoes kept insisting that Yvonne Smith’s orange colored pants could actually be the pumpkin they were in search of so wiley potatoes continuously bobbled along in Yvonne’s direction. When all the dirt and laughter settled after a potato roll off it was clear that Nona Smith had potato rolling skills and won mashed potatoes for dinner. Just kidding on the mashed potatoes. 

Tom Novotny came back for our Halloween Happy Hour in his wizard costume scaring Miss Molly in the process. Tom played fun creepy music like the Adams Family. Only Yvonne Smith came dressed up in a pumpkin costume so of corpse she won the prize for best costume.

Candy Corn, Corn Hole and Other Things

We had a guess the number of candy corns in a jar. Guesses ranged anywhere from 50-2007. Doris Blank guessing 200 was the closest guesser as there were 184 candy corns in the jar. Doris chose a package of gum as her prize. Sarah Groth was the closest staff person and she won the candy corn. She was excited as candy corn with peanuts was something she shared with her grandpa who has passed away.

We played corn hole with Nadine Abel and Tom Hedstrom coming out the winners. We played lots of Bingo and Pokeno. October Bingo coverall winners were Tom Hedstrom, Nadine Abel, Nona Smith, Yvonne Smith and Joyce Hagen.  We had coffee club, church on Sundays and of course lots of coffee. We enjoyed our volunteers, Cook County School choir, Bible study and our outing to the Hub for lunch. We played dice games, card games, had a sing-along with Lavona Czaplicki and Marsha Hansen and drank more coffee.

We had Trick or Treater’s come and visit us in their cute costumes. Residents always enjoy seeing young children.  If you have young children or grandchildren we would love for you to come share them with us.

Tearing At Our Heart Strings

While waiting for the main caption for this newsletter to pop in my head I came across this staff notification. Janet Ryden passed away this afternoon. Janet was a remarkable lady that came to us from a facility in Aurora, MN. Although she did not live in Cook County during her adult life, she had spent some of her earlier years on the Gunflint Trail and had memories and family connections to the Gunflint Trail area. Janet was an entertaining lady with a quick wit. She was someone who could keep you on your toes and was always interested in passersby, wanting to know who you were or what you were doing. Janet had become like family to many of our care center staff and she will be greatly missed by those who knew her well. Please keep our care center staff and Janet’s family in your thoughts and prayers as they grieve her passing.

Janet was the life of the party at many of our activities. Bingo and Happy Hour aren’t the same without her. When Janet would get a Bingo she would holler out BINGO and everybody would laugh. One time during a hangman game she hollered out the letter B when it wasn’t her turn. She had the best sheepish grin on her face and said Whoops, it wasn’t my turn to which everyone laughed again. A volunteer told me today that once Janet knew who you were and you talked with her she would always have the best smile on her face.

Our residents are like family to us. I know I have written about this in the past, but it’s worthy of being talked about again. Staff at North Shore Living go above and beyond their job. Staff puts in extra hours when needed and look out for residents like family, because residents are family. If a resident needs hair accessories, clothing or a certain coffee creamer a staff member a lot of times just goes and gets it for them.

After taking care of a resident in many cases for years it is really hard on staff and other residents when one passes away. Staff still have to do their jobs and take care of the rest of our extended family many times without stopping to take a breath or cry after someone passes.

Old Age Ain’t For Sissies

November is looking good for lots of fun times. Come volunteer and help us enjoy the fun. Grass definitely is growing under our bums nor is it growing anywhere in the county for that matter.  We are starting to collect items for our December Bean Auction so if you have things like jewelry, new sox, gloves, stuffed animals, hats, and candy, candy, candy we would love to have it. Residents use the Bean Auction to get gifts for the family members for Christmas. Give Lisa a call at 218-387-3518 if you would like to volunteer or donate to our auction.  

Remember Old Age Ain’t For Sissies and do a little Oom Paa Paa. It keeps you lively and is good for your soul.