Off the Face of the Earth...

Apparently...

May is always chaos and this May has been no different!

K4's show was pretty darned good. I'm glad we didn't listen to her and went anyway. That Man and I had a good time hanging out before the show since there was no reason to come home and then leave five minutes later. The kids did a great job with the entire thing and it was awesome to hear what all of the seniors are doing after graduation.

Now we're exactly a week out from the big walk. The cap and gown are sitting on my desk. She's finishing up assignments and prepping for finals. I think she has two days of finals next week.

The sucky thing is that she's still fighting whatever crap she's been fighting. She missed her senior trip to NY yesterday because of it. I don't know who was more upset... (her, I'm sure), but it sucked.

Going back in time...

We had a pretty darned good Memorial Day weekend. We went to The Wilds, though we didn't inhabit the alternate living space. Instead, we put our super-comfy air mattress up in my sister's living room for sleeping. We hadn't had time to get the camper out and check it, and the threat of rain and mud from the previous terrible rain were huge. The guys had a very terrible week and didn't want to deal with the campers, so my sister and I caved. It was weirdly nice, though weird. We spent our days in The Wilds and our nights hanging out just the adults. The weird part was not being able to go into my camper for stuff I needed, but it was okay.

The picnic was really good. Food, family, and friends. And a pretty decent day temperature-wise. Too chilly and high water for the kids to get into the creek, but nice to sit along the bank and talk. We got to see all of our kids and all but one grandkid. I call win.

We ended up giving K4 most of her graduation present and she spent the weekend hanging out with her cousin and sleeping in her tent. She was super happy. Now if we could just get her car fixed. Oy.

This weekend is my writing meeting and K5's baton recital. Looking forward to both.

Also, today is my first baby's birthday. It's so hard to believe he's 29! I remember this day 29 years ago so vividly! Happy Birthday, Baby Boy!!

That is all for now.

It's writing time!

Behave!

Thursday?

Sorry for the silence...

It's crazy time around here.

The day job is insane. I come home truly broken each night.

In fact, this is the first time I've turned on my computer since Friday. That's sucky and bad. And yes, it means I have not written. Boo.

It's been chaos here. For many, many reasons...

K4's final show is coming up quick. There are crazy rehearsals going on. She hasn't decided if she wants us to come or not. She says it's going to be bad and she doesn't want us there. We're just waiting, but we'll probably go regardless of what she says.

Graduation is in like 3 weeks! Wow. My last kid. Graduating. Weird.

Working on graduation present - already know what it's going to be. Excited to give it to her.

College - Well, she was accepted, but she's on the waiting list. She might not be in this year, and she might be. We'll see. So exciting though. We have to fill out a form and she has to get drug tested and then they'll let her know when she's in - they even said it could be the day of first classes. So we'll see... But wow!

I should be on retreat right now!

I'm so super bummed. It could have worked out, but it didn't. I should, right now, be sitting on a bunch of good words, sleeping in a super comfy queen-sized bed, having someone cook every meal for me, and looking forward to more stellar writing days. I should be enjoying my time away from the homestead and just being able to be an author.

I cannot tell you how sad I am...

I don't know if you will hear from me tomorrow night or not... Tomorrow is my momma's birthday. Tomorrow is the anniversary of her services. This past week or so has been rough, and it always will be. I miss my momma beyond words.

Mother's Day was super rough. It was the anniversary of my momma's death. And couple that with That Mom dying just two weeks prior. I cried on That Man. I tried to stay away from people, though K3 came over. We played a game and he helped That Man make dinner. It was nice. Actually, Those Kids did make it nice. It's just my stuff that got in my own way.

That's all I have...

Behave!

Feel Good Friday...

Made it through the week! Oy! And it was a long one.

There is some good stuff, so let's focus on that...

1. Friday!
Though I had to leave work and get K4 home due to a migraine. The upside of that is that a piece of mail I was waiting for arrived just as I was leaving to head back into work.

2. Taking care of some estate stuff. Still have to finish it up tomorrow, but I made a good start.

3. Ordering food for dinner. No cooking. No clean up. And it was good.

4. Household administration duties - at least the paperwork kind - are taken care of.

5. Sleeping in tomorrow. At least a little.

6. That Man and his siblings getting to be together last night. We had a great meal. K1 did the dishes. Boxes were gone through, memories shared. The Brother went back home today, but I'm glad for the time the siblings got to spend together.

7. Hanging with That Man tonight. Our house is pretty quiet tonight. We're watching murder tv and talking about our weeks. It's been a long couple of weeks around here. This is actually the first time we've had to chill and reconnect. It's good.

That is all.

Behave!

Finally Through All of the Details...

Well, for the most part.

There are things to go through and finances to settle, but they'll get done in time.

The services were beautiful. Our funeral home is amazing and provide a level of care I have never experienced before. They did when my folks passed away and they met & exceeded our expectations once again.

That Man and his siblings spoke a beautiful tribute to their momma. My brother-in-law spoke and sang. Our girls spoke. In fact, we had so much sharing that the Pastor's portion had to be shortened greatly.

After the service, we had a reception at a local place associated with the funeral home. The food was good. The service exceptional. The fellowship even more exceptional.

The weekend was taking care of house stuff and trying to rest. We started putting up my Jeep shelter and made a feast of tacos. That Brother hung out here most of the day. On Sunday, I stayed in bed until noon and stayed in my jammies until it was time to go to That Sister's. That was a nice visit - just the siblings. We ate, laughed, talked, and watched stupid television.

Then, we had to wait the weekend until we could have the small service at the military cemetery. That was yesterday and was poignant. We kept it to immediate family - mainly because of people's work schedules and asking them to take more time off of work felt rude and because by that point, we were all done in.

Today was back to work. It was a rough day - mainly because we're exhausted and for me, because my work wasn't attended to while I was away and I'm buried. It wasn't intentional, it's just super busy and we were short three people, so there's that.

I had to drop out of the 50/50 challenge when That Mom started failing and we spent the weekend with her. I've barely opened my computer since mid-last week. I'll get back to it this week.

But I'm going to bed now. I have no concentration left at all.

Behave.

Wednesday...

This week is dragging. The work day went so slow, regardless of the fact that I'm super busy. That Man texted me to say the same thing and I couldn't believe I'd only been at work for an hour. It felt like I'd worked all day already.

That Man took care of his clothing. I grabbed a shirt the other day. I need to take K4 out to get something decent to wear. We are still working on pictures. Everything I think we're good, someone sends me more. That's fine, but at some point, I'm going to have to stop accepting them so we can get to work.

We're exhausted. That Man more than me, probably because he's gotten even less sleep. I don't see that changing any time soon.

That is all...

Behave!

Dealing...

Yesterday was the funeral planning.

I ended up taking off work to go with them. I couldn't leave them alone to take care of things when I had insight and there was no way I could leave my husband. We were there for four hours. Not because we had a lot of planning to do, but because we couldn't stop talking. Our pastor is amazing and provides the best comic relief. And while we were disappointed that our Funeral Bob wasn't taking care of us (it was his day off and he was booked with personal stuff), his replacement did an amazing job, which just speaks to the level of care they provide.

We did have to make some decisions. Like food, and an urn, and the programs. She took care of the financials and her final wishes, but did leave some things up to us. I think we did a pretty good job figuring stuff out. I'm glad I was there. Not that they couldn't have figured it out themselves, but there was some reliance on me since I've done this twice before. I didn't mind at all and I was grateful to be there with them through this.

We chose a simple wooden box. I wrote a poem, but don't think it's good enough to put on the programs. We actually found a poem in her room that I sent in to the funeral home for that.

Also, we discovered that they have tiny urns. That was a bonus since her ashes will be buried with their dad. I wish we would have realized that for our parents, but it's all good. That Man and his sister each got one. Their brother wasn't about that, which is fine. Some people feel weird about ashes. I feel weird about the fingerprint stuff.

We won't be having a viewing. She felt very strongly about no one looking at her when she's dead. I understand that completely. She's being cremated, so we'll have her ashes there. It's going to be a long day.

We went to lunch after, which was a good sharing time for both That Man and That Sister.

There is still so much to do. Picture boards. Clothing. Scheduling That Brother. He comes in soon and we have family obligations to attend, host, and manage. I'm back to work and it's brutal. So far behind and so much stuff to do there.

I'm not able to go to the mini retreat my writing chapter is hosting. That sucks, but I have to do what I have to do. I was really looking forward to it, too.

That is all...

Behave!