Having Family Visit Is So Wonderful

Mom’s nephew Craig and his wife Mary stopped by for the second time in a week.  Mom really enjoyed the time spent with them.  I suppose a silver lining to losing someone in the family is the time you get to spend with people you haven’t seen for a while.  They chatted for a couple of hours and then we went out to dinner.  Mom chose the place to eat because she had a gift card for that place, but ended up that she could not remember where she put it.  So Craig got to do something that my father would never let him do… buy dinner!

I realized after deciding this picture as the one to post that, for those who have not seen mom lately, you can see the watermelon (that’s what she calls her liver tumors) sticking out below her hands.  Oh well, she looks pretty darn good anyway for someone in her condition.

Mom and I went to a memorial gathering for a friend of mom and dad’s from the gym.  George passed away a couple of weeks before dad did.  It was a really nice gathering.  It was at a small restaurant that he went to all the time for lunch because they had a patio and he could bring his dog with him.  There was quite a turnout and it was very nice to see that George was so loved.

Mom was a bit unsteady on her feet today, well I should say this afternoon.  She blamed it on her shoes, but I think it probably had more to do with her being on her feet most of the day.  She was up about 8:30 this morning and was non-stop busy.  She watered her plants, took out the trash, did the dishes and a load of laundry.  I have been impressed with how much energy she has had lately.  Perhaps keeping her mind on something other than dad is the motivator, but regardless, it is good to see her staying active.  We talk about dad every now and then, but we don’t spend a lot of time dwelling on him.  We talked a bit about how to set things up for the open house we will have for him.  I took the beautiful wood urn that Mike made for dad down to the cremation place today.  I figure they will call sometime this week wanting me to get dad outta there.  I’m sure he’s been suggesting inappropriate things to the ladies down there.

We got another package from Mike in the mail today.  Dad asked him to make my nephew Andrew a humidor.  Andrew is a cigar aficionado and my dad thought he would like to have a homemade humidor.  It is really nice and smells fantastic.  He also made mom a little single flower wood vase (picture to the left).  It is the cutest little thing you ever did see.  Mike has made us some really neat wooden puzzles and knickknacks over the years.  Can’t thank him enough for all the cool little treasures he has sent.

Tomorrow is another gym day and then afterward mom and I are going to stop by the cemetery to look for a plot for her and dad.  We also need to get information on a headstone that will have both their names on it.  Mom needs to quit stalling on her list of people to call as well.  I am sure she will find something else that needs to be done instead.  It certainly wont be the taxes because I already got those done.  I suppose she can use the ‘I just need to get a bank balance’ excuse that she has been using for a couple weeks now.  Bless her little heart, she just cannot get her bank balance.  Although she really doesn’t have anything to worry about, she still has to go through that process.  I just agree with her and try in little bits to tell her just to pick a day and go from there, to forget about the past two months.  Oh well, she will do what she feels that she needs to do.

Well I think that sums up the day.  We shall see what fun stuff tomorrow brings!