Conflicted

One of my dear grandmothers passed away a little bit ago. My family had moved away when I was 14, and then I grew up and moved even farther away and got swept up in my life and my little ones and what I was doing. And then she was gone. Quickly. I had a wake up call. Life really is short. I've had a lot of aching moments thinking of times that I would think of her and decide to call her to chat - and then something came up and that had to be done and we had to get there and then I had to go to bed.....whatever. And I never would call. I never would write. And I loved my Grandma.

So tonight I was looking through the mail and there was a letter from an attorney in Oregon. I was surprised and couldn't figure out what it could possibly be about. Then as I opened it and began reading my eyes passed over the phrase Last Will and Testament. I had this sinking in my stomach. I thought, "Please, oh please tell me you did not leave anything to me." It's such a weird feeling to even think about that kind of stuff after someone has died. And then the hardest thing of all was when I found, at the end of the document, a form I needed to fill out to basically lay claim to my portion. It felt wrong to even fill it out. It felt like I was coming forward and asking for something from my grandma whom I was feeling in debt to relationship-wise.

Anyway. My thoughts.

And I did decide to seize the day. I had a plane ticket to go see her when I found out she had Leukemia and then she died before I was scheduled to fly out. So I kept the same flight and went to see my other grandparents who also live in Oregon and had a lovely time. Visiting, catching up on what is going on in each others lives, looking through photo albums and hearing many stories of their growing up years. It was precious time. Time that I will be forever thankful for, and wish that I would've made happen earlier with my grandma.

I am so grateful for my family. All of them. Parents, siblings, aunts and uncles, cousins, grandparents, 2nd cousins, nieces, nephews, in-laws. They all have a special place in my heart and have played a part in my life experiences that have given me great memories and contributed to who I am today.

Now to figure out how to stay in touch with everyone.....the blog counts, right? Except that they don't all have one. And there's a difference between knowing what's going on and having conversations and getting a great hug. Okay - if you are family and you are reading this, please consider yourself hugged. You are all running through my mind right now. Yes, ALL of you.

Clone Troopers and Ninjas and Pirate Girls, Oh My!

Halloween was awesome! Here is part of our group before we got started. Oh, and Millie below.

The kids did a great job designing their pumpkins.




JACOB'S












ANDREW'S














AMELIA'S (designed by Jake)













HEAD WITCH'S



And the kids are off!
Another year older =
faster and more stamina. We were out for about two hours and covered a lot of terrain.

No sore feet complaints until the
last street. Atta boys!














Checkin' out the loot.





















Nani and Poppy came over to take pictures and send us off. Then they hung out on our porch to pass out candy while we all made our rounds. It worked out great! And I think Nani took enough video footage of Amelia when we got home to put together a mini-series. (: A fun evening!

Singing in the rain

Tonight was such an enjoyable evening. We went over to Nani and Poppy's house for dinner and family home evening. As dinner was cooking, a sorely needed thunderstorm came through. We saw the downpour and shouted to everyone and we all ran outside. Poppy, Andrew, and I did a footrace down the driveway, Amelia splashed in the puddles in the driving rain, and even Jacob finally got to join in the fun. Poppy quickly covered Jake's cast and all the kids and Poppy grabbed some umbrellas and played in the rain until they were all quite wet.

I love unexpected moments like that. Then right as we finished dinner, Mike's sister called and said she was now home from the hospital with her newborn daughter and we all got to go see the newest sweetheart from heaven. Such a darling.

And since I don't have pictures of our reveling in the rain, I will put up one of the kids playing together on a hot evening last week - another unexpected, but welcome, jaunt in the water.