On Monday I ended up taking a mental health day. The chaos of the birthday/party, the heartbreak of my grandma's sudden decline, and the anticipation of our house guests got to me. I dropped the girls off at school when they woke up, Christian headed to work and I spent the day doing some cleaning, some resting and some Hulu watching. I talked to my dad and there was no change in my grandma's condition. Christian and Lorenzo arrived at the house after work to get some more work done on the deck. Christian surprised me with some flowers, to cheer me up. He's getting so thoughtful in his advancing years! The girls and I hung out...they played with all of the new birthday toys and watched some videos. One silver lining in the day...I was able to score our Renaissance Festival tickets for super cheap today. A deal site had them for buy one get one free...I happened to have $20 in referral cash, so I only had to pay $1.95 for us to go this year! LOL, saving money always cheers me up!
Doing The Hair and Playing with her newest Baby
The Birds are Getting Big!
My Flowers...So Pretty
Tuesday was a BUSY day at work...two days off, and getting ready for time off next week will make for a busy week for both of us. This will also be the first full week of school for the girls. Today, Amelia's teacher said she got to experience waking Amelia up from her nap for the first time today. I didn't even need to hear anything more...she is a BEAR when you wake her up. It's NOT pretty. My sleepy girl. I stopped home quick after work to let the dog out and grab some gift cards. Then, we were off to meet Christan at the mall. Tonight's mission was finding family picture outfits for this weekend. It was quite a chore, but we were successful. We grabbed some dinner, then made our way home. The girls went right to bed, and we weren't far behind.
We were delayed from shopping as soon as we walked in the door...
Rico was just chilling in the girls' room after work, basking in the sun
I think the birds will be gone very soon!
Wednesday was a pretty standard day. Work and school, both went well. My dad and step mom had a funeral to attend today, so I didn't get a chance to touch base with him. I've made the decision not to visit my grandma right now. She's back at the nursing home, in hospice care. My dad said she doesn't look anything like herself and she's not really "there". It's just not how I want to remember her. I did not visit my other grandparents at the end either...I just couldn't bring myself to see then. This case is no different. I think everybody deals with death differently, and this is just my way. So, I pushed through the day. I picked up the girls and we played some soccer while Christian did some yard work.
Soccer Girls
Thursday was nothing too exciting. Talked to my dad, and Grandma is still holding on. She's a tough woman, that's for sure. They don't think she can make it through the weekend though. It's tough...knowing it's coming, wishing there was something you could do to stop it. So painful. This afternoon I received an e-mail with Olivia's soccer information. I can't wait, I'm so excited for her to start. Hopefully she'll cooperate and participate! After work, we did some puzzles and played some games...ate dinner, hung out. The usual. They were so excited about their first "show and share" day at school tomorrow! Olivia has settled on bringing Jingle, Amelia is bringing her Pinkie Pie. They're so funny,.
PUMPKINS!!!!!!!!! It's happening!
Friday was a crazy hectic day, all around! Work was CRAZY, getting ready for vacation. I got as much done as I possibly could, so it was a rat race all day. I ended up packing up some work to bring home with me. I'm off Monday-Wednesday. Our friends leave next Thursday...I decided to just work from home that day rather than rush to get ready and drive in. I left work a tad early to do some final shopping. PetSmart, Target, Walmart, Kohl's. BUSY! But, we're ready. The house is clean, groceries are stocked, picture outfits are ready to go. I spent the night doing some final cleaning up and laundry. Christian and Lorenzo did the last of the deck painting - other than a few touch-ups once everything settles, it's DONE! FINALLY!!!!!!! What a day!
These lilies are HUGE!
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Saturday was a busy day, and the first official day having our friends here. They arrived EARLY this morning, around 3:00AM. Ouch. They were still sleeping this morning as Olivia and I rushed out the door for swim class. Her last class of the session. She did so great. I couldn't figure out why she wasn't doing quite as well as last week...but, it turned out she only had one floating device on, rather than a ring of floaters. She's so awesome! She officially passed, and is moving on to Level 2. So exciting! After swim class, we spent the afternoon hanging out with our friends around the house. The kids played in the sandbox, in the pool and just running around like crazy. We spent time catching up, eating lunch, relaxing, making dinner. It was so fun having a full, chaotic house again. We left after dinner, with Dawn, to take our family pictures. We made our way to a little farm in Eagan and they turned out great. I can't wait to see the final product. Once home, we made our way to the backyard for a fire and some s'mores to end the night. What a great way to start our visit.
Swim Class
Look at our Fish!
Playdate Fun!
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Sunday was a difficult day. I got the call from my dad early in the morning that my Grandma has passed. 80 years old...married for 58 years, 4 kids, 9 grandkids and 9 great-grandchildren. She was such a good, strong, faithful woman. The true matriarch of our family. The loss is going to leave such a huge hole in our family. She's been ill for some time now, and without her true memory for so long, but it really doesn't make it any easier. I know she's in a better place now. I know she's finally at peace. But, even that doesn't make it any easier. I just want her here, with us. I want her to watch the kids grow up and be a part of their lives. It's not fair that if we have any more kids, they'll never get to know her. I just hate it.
And, of course, it brings up a lot of memories of my other grandparents. They've been gone for so long now, they've missed SO much and I miss them so much. It's just so frustrating.
The rest of the day was pretty rough. Thankfully, having our friends here provides some much needed distractions. I pulled myself together and we all got ready for the day. We made our way to Stillwater to spend the day together. We played at Teddy Bear Park, we had a picnic with lots of laughs and catching up, we hiked up some stairs to get a view of the city and watch the lift bridge do it's job, we walk down main street and stopped in a little shop, and finally spent some time by the river. We were going to stop at the ice cream shop we stopped at last year, but the line was ridiculous. So, we settled for some dairy queen on the way home. Once home, we grilled some dinner, played outside and hung out.
A Beautiful Angel © Christopher Warner
A beautiful angel is all that is here
Saying O'Lord please leave me here
Not ready to leave but has to go
Wants to go back but God says no
A husband and children
Grandchildren and friends
A meaningful life that suddenly ends
And angel is what she was meant to be
Now think of all that she can see
Watching over her family night and day
Saying I love you in her own special way
In the night we sleep and in the day we cry
While she watches us all from her star in the sky
