Changes

It's been awhile since my last post and so many life changes have taken place. Early Tuesday morning (September 1, 2009) my wonderful grandmother Elsie passed away peacefully in her sleep. We all knew it was coming and since she lived to a ripe old age of 97 (with good health right up until about 30 hours prior to death) we couldn't be too sad, of course we'll miss her dearly but she was ready to go and now she's with my grandfather again. The funeral was Friday and, although it was a somewhat solemn event, it was nice to see all my aunts, uncles and cousins (there are 129 of us).

Then on Sunday I lost my oldest child and only daughter Shelby...ok, I might be exaggerating a little but she did leave us to head off to college. I cried a hard, ugly cry Saturday night after eveyone went to bed, this time wasn't because I was worried about her being ready and able to be on her own, it was because I'm really REALLY going to miss her. The University had the entire 'Move-In' process down to a science...it all ran like a well-oiled machine and if you've never seen it, you should, it's really quite something. I actually laughed and had fun even though a few hours later I had to drive away knowing I would not see her again until Thanksgiving. I'm doing surprisingly well considering...but I find myself constantly wondering what she's doing now.

The rest of the weekend, in between funerals and college move-ins, Tom and I painted our fence. What a chore! So far we've gone through 8 gallons of tinted stain and still have the entire back of the fence to paint. That will have to wait until next weekend though...we both have to nurse our right hands back to health, they're somewhat crippled right now!