Busy Busy Weekend

Last week was a short work-week, having celebrated Memorial Day on Monday with the day off of work. Then on Thursday night while talking to Mom it occurred to me that there were quite a few things she needed help with given the fact that she's handling everything with Bill and the Hospice nurses all by herself. So, Thursday night, Megan and I went over to Daytona to help sort through stuff in the mobile home. We got back Friday evening, just in time for Keith to leave for duty over in Clearwater. Bummer. This "ships passing in the night" type lifestyle is really getting exhausting for everyone involved.

By the time Saturday morning rolled around, Megan was weepy and cranky, and I was still way behind on unpacking the mini-van of all the stuff I brought back from Mom's house. Not to mention that our pool had bloomed so badly with mustard algae, that I needed to really spend some time tending to it. We actually had tadpoles swimming in our "swamp".

Ordinarily, we are at church bright and early on Saturday morning - but for the past couple of weeks we just haven't been able to make it out the door, so we've been streaming the service on-line. I have some mixed feelings about streaming the service, since I really feel as though we must be physically present in church weekly. However, the irony here is that the kids were just glued to the laptop watching the service. There was no wiggling, giggling or climbing on my lap. Wow, it was actually enjoyable. (Not that physically attending church isn't enjoyable!!). However, I have now created a monster. This past week none of the kids were sick, yet Megan was weepy (she's been having frequent nose bleeds again) and came out of her room carrying her church dress and announcing that she was staying in her pajamas so that we could just "call church on the computer". I had to agree that I was exhausted and aching from sleeping on my mom's couch Thursday night, so the thought of just being home sounded really good to me. We read some stories, listened to some music and cooked up a big delicious breakfast.

Backing up to Thursday night and Friday - Megan and I had a great time visiting with Nana and Bill. Bill is a ton of fun to be around and he and Megan really seemed to enjoy hanging out. Mom and I worked on the funeral pre-arrangements so that there will be less for her to do when the time comes. The Hospice nurse has really laid things out nicely for us.

Megan and Bill hanging out. They enjoyed pancakes for breakfast at Denny's. Then Bill decided that he needed to look underneath the mini-van to see if his hitch that he's not using would fit on my mini-van. (The dent is old from sliding off the road into a ditch up in Kodiak. I promise, I'll get it fixed one of these days, it just keeps moving way down the priorities list.)

Nothing gets the neighbors talking quite like a terminally ill man on the ground in his driveway.

Daddy made it back home on Sunday morning. Not a moment too soon, either, as I was really ready for a nap or at least some form of peace and quiet. I could feel the weight of the world leave my shoulders when I saw him walking up to the front door. Keith brought home some of his things from the apartment in Clearwater. Daniel helped bring the stuff in.

Here he is saying, "can I play your guitar?".

And then there's the surprise that it really is a tennis racket! So his next question was "are we going to play the wii?".