A good time was had by all.....

I have finally recovered from a long two weeks worth of helping my mom get ready for a family reunion. This would be a reunion from my grandmothers generation on down. We use to have this every year, for as long as I could remember as a kid. One of my favorite events to look forward to during the summer...NOT! Now I helped put one on, NEVER THOUGHT THAT WOULD EVER HAPPEN.

This all started about two weeks ago, when some of the relatives in Seattle, WA called and said they are coming our way and would like to see my grandma and her twin sister and some others. Hence the reunion begins. The Seattle people are going to be staying at my parents house for the weekend. It is just one of the families coming from WA. We stayed at his moms house when we were in Seattle a year ago. So Mom starts making the phone calls to let people know this is going to take place and when. I get the job of getting the house ready. My dad has had shoulder surgery so he is a wing down for 5 weeks and mom has a bad leg so she can not do alot of the work either. My twin sister is two hours away with a 10 month old and a 5yr so that was out as well. My younger sister lives closest to mom and dad and is practically at their house everyday, except these past two weeks. When she know there is work to do she will not be there. That left me. The sprouts and I went up the weekend before and we cleaned the garage on Saturday. They loved pushing the brooms around the garage floor. I cleaned all the walls and ceiling of the garage and all the windows and doors as well. I also got the front porch and back porch cleaned as well before I called it a day Saturday night. I had to take the sprouts back home Saturday night because their day was going to pick them up Sunday morning after he got off work.

Sunday morning, I head to church early to get the computer ready for the service then we attended the church wide picnic for lunch then back to mom and dads. Mom had to leave with my younger sister for the rest of the day and evening to catch a show that my sister got tickets for. That left me with a list of things to get done. Clean the three bathrooms, move all the furniture out of the grand living room and vacuum the floors because the carpet was getting cleaned the next morning. Wipe down some chairs, clean some tile floors, dust,...blah, blah, blah.... Got it done on Sunday. Left mom and dads at 11pm.

Was back and forth to mom and dads all week. My younger sister helped on Tuesday night to restring the lights on the flag pole. It is a two person job and dad is a wing short and I was busy doing other stuff. Her daughter was moving the yard because the mower that dad has take two hands he has only one available. She was covered in dirt when she got the yard done. We had not had any rain for months here but that does not seem to bother the weeds in the yard. On Wed. night my younger sister was commenting on how she help put up the lights on the flag pole, like what more do you want. I told her if she was looking to compare check lists of things done bring it on. My dad about died laughing at that one.

Thursday night, I went up and got all the final touches done. Ready for people to arrive for the weekend.

Friday night, the sprouts and I head up to mom and dads. We finished up a few more items that mom wanted done again. The guests arrive from Seattle, and the pizza party for the evening begins.

Saturday we head back to mom and dads, for just a small family gathering for lunch. We brought my grandmother out to the house. She is on hospice care and in an adult foster care house, now. We just cannot take care of her. My aunt who is a nurse and her husband brought grandma to the house. Grandma about sat on the ground when they tried to get her in the car. She just has no strength anymore. But she was glad to see the people from Seattle. She was asleep by 3pm though. They had a hard time getting her back in the car. Her twin sister came as well.

After they all left we relaxed for the rest of the afternoon, kind of. We changed the sitting arrangements for the reunion tomorrow, so that my grandma and her twin sister could have comfortable chairs to sit in for the day instead of my grandma being in her wheelchair all afternoon. So, back to moving furniture again. They got the two reclining rocking chairs for the day.

Saturday night, my twin sister and her family and the sprouts and I head to my house for the evening. I stopped by the store to pick up some stuff for cinnamon rolls and dip for the veggies that I had to cut up this afternoon. I also had to cut up all the fruit as well. Yes I know I can buy it all done, except the store let me down on that, so I had to do it the old fashion way. I got all the stuff, we got all the kids asleep finally. I called it a night as well.

Sunday we all got ready and headed up to the festivities. I realize that I have forgotten to make the cinnamon rolls when I am about a mile from mom and dads. Then my mom asked if I brought the veggie dip. Forgot that. My twin and I offer to go back and get it. We got shot down. We have a tendency not to be right back. LOL. So we improvise. People start to arrive. I was apparently left in charge of getting all the food that we had out on the table. The reunion was a potluck. I felt like I was on one of the food reality show challenges. I got it all out there.

Grandma and her sister were there in their height of glory. Two 94yr olds dressed to kill for the day. They knew everyone. It was a perfect set up that we had for them as well. People could just pull up a chair and sit and chat with both of them or just one of them as well. My grandma who was asleep by 3pm yesterday afternoon, was awake the whole time today. People did not start to leave until about 5pm.

We all realized that was probably the last time grandma would be able to get out. She realized that as well. She has come to terms with how much work it takes to get her out and about now. It is not because we do not want to, she just cannot stand anymore and it gets hard to move her. We were all glad to have her here for the reunion. That was the first time any of us has seen her so awake for such a long time, and alert as well. There were three people there from her generation and she called them by name as well. We all had a hard time sending her back to the home on Sunday night. Her twin sister was there saying good bye to her as well. My grandma has congestive heart failure and it is finally winning. We have finally reach a point where changing meds might help in one area but will hurt a different area. Yes, it is a matter of time. But again, A good time was had by all, and it is those times that we will all remember.

Why is it.......

Last week flew by for me. I had the sprouts all week. They went to vacation bible school at church so we spent the night at my parents all week. That way I could drive back and forth to work and mom could take the sprouts to church. Why is it, that is was easier for me to be to work on time when I had to drive 25 miles through the country then when I had to drive 2 miles in the city? A good time was had by all last week.

We celebrated my nieces birthday this past weekend as well. It was a little early but she doesn't care. A pinata was the main entertainment for two 5yrs and a 7yr old. That pinata did not give up easily either.

It is know wonder that I do not like speaking to my younger sister. She has done nothing but complain all weekend. Of course she has complained to my mom about my twin sister and I but she will not say anything to us thought. She complained about my sister not getting our niece anything for her birthday last month. She has the gift and just forgot it when she came down. Niece was not around for her birthday, and they usually have a dinner for birthday but that never happened either. Then she complained about my sister and I planning a vacation together. My twin sister and I have kids the same age. Mine are 7 and 5, hers are 5 and almost 1. The two 5yr olds are 6 months apart. We try to get them together at least once a month if possible. My younger sister as a 13yr old, who babysits for me this summer. My twin and I are planning a spring break vacation for this up coming school year. It will probably be the last vacation together for spring break because her daughter will be in school next fall and will have different spring breaks. We live in different states. We invited my younger sister to go if she would like. She is mad because we plan everything and she either takes it or leaves it. I prefer the leave it, but I do not get so lucky all the time. She was mad because last year she went to Seattle with us and it was like this time or not at all. We had a scheduled bowling time and fit the Seattle trip in around our bowling. The rest of the family was going and she was the only one who had not been out there yet. She will never go anywhere unless there is a First National Bank of Mom and Dad near by. She and I are in the same boat except in many ways. We are both divorced, we both have children, we both have a house and car. Well I have my own car, she gets alot of her cars from dad mostly. The difference is I do not depend on my parents as much as she does. Granted my parents have helped me out, but I do not factor them in if at all possible. My sister factors them in all the time. My twin sister and I know this, my mom knows it, and she knows that it has not gone unnoticed between my twin and I as well. That is the way my younger sister will always be. Guess what we told her that we were going to beat our family cabin up in Michigan and that she is welcome to join us that week also. I am hoping Margarittaville will be set up for the week. :)

I have the day off today, which is nice again. The sprouts and I are going to tour a candy factory and hopefully catch the Fort Wayne Wizards baseball game tonight. Weather permitting. It is raining right now.

A Terrible Weekend......

My not so lovely weekend started on Friday night. I drove a couple of hours away to meet a friend, we talked for a long time that night/morning. We met for breakfast had a great time. We went to a water park, found a nice spot to park our stuff, friend went to use restroom and never returned. Car was gone from parking lot as well. So home I went but not making a phone call to said friend and expressing my displeasure with choices that were made. Especially since friend just got out of hospital a week ago from having a stint put in artery of heart. I later found out friend was OK, but friend did not tell me that personally though. Don't have to worry about that person when Christmas comes around. On my way back home I called and chatted with the sprouts. I have not seen them all week because they have been camping with their dad at a local campground. I have talked to them about every other day. They both informed me that my dog passed away. He must have passed away Thursday night, Friday, or Saturday morning. That was really hard to take at the time. He was actually my ex's dog, but ex never took him after I asked him to leave the house. We each had a dog, beagles. I got mine on my birthday and a few months later we picked up his at the pound. Both dogs were about the same age. They loved each other, and were fun to be around. They both loved to go for walks and play outside. We had to put mine down shortly after I found out what ex had been doing most of our marriage. That was very hard at that time. I took care of the other dog for awhile, but he got to demanding after awhile. I live in town and have a fenced in back yard with lots of shade, but if I was not home before dark he just barked, and that pissed off the neighbors. I finally asked my ex's mom if she would like to take care of him. She loved him and had lost one of her dogs, so off to grandmas he went. At least the sprouts got to see him. I missed him. He really loved the walks more than my dog did. It was hard to hear the sprouts tell me that he died. It was not a big thing to them, they are only 7 and 5 and did not know him very well, like I did. So my Saturday really sucked! Sunday was not much better. I went to church early to get the computer set up for the first service in a record amount of time. Then I went and picked up my grandmother with my mom and we brought her out to the house for a few hours. She has been in an adult care home for a couple of weeks now. My aunt that is a nurse and can take care of her has been gone, and no one else in the family is really capable of taking care of her. I am about the only one able to lift her. My dad is having surgery on his shoulder this week, so he is not able to lift her now. She enjoyed the day at the house. She was glad to get out. But then she started in on how she hates it there, and that they yell at her, so now the family has lots of decisions to make and will be making them ASAP. I absolutely hate being caught in those decisions.

Family Matters.....

My parents were suppose to go on vacation together to the great family cabin in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. They were going to meet my Aunt and Uncle there. The plans changed a bit while I was bowling in NC. My dad has to have surgery on his rotator cuff next week, so he has pre-op things to be done this week. Mom was not happy after all he has been dragging going to the doctor for a few months now, and now he decides he has to get it done. My mom left for the cabin on Sunday, so I spent the day with dad after church. In some ways we are close in other ways we are not close. We both are pretty up to date on current events and have a little bit of knowledge of each other professions. He is a master Electrician, he can wire a house. I am an Electrical Engineer, I have no idea how to wire a house. I can make a plug for you that plugs into the outlets of your house though. We have never been real close, he has no idea of all the stuff that went on before my divorce, he does know the reasons behind the divorce and that is all. That is all he really needs to know. Some of the stuff would probably cause a family feud.

Of course he had to work for a little bit in the afternoon, so I cleaned up the house a bit and washed the dishes so that he would have enough forks for the week since mom was going to be gone. He eats frozen dinners when she is gone. When he got back, he and I went out to dinner and then grocery shopping. I think dinner was just a bonus for me to go shopping with him. I pushed the cart while he stocked up for the week. It was nice to hang around with him for the day. I have not done that in years. He was joking that some people might think that he fired my sister and hired a new girl to work for him. My younger sister is his only employee, and has red hair. I do not have red hair. We were traveling around in his work van as well. I play along at times. Gives me something exciting to do.

Tonight I am golfing with my Uncle. This should be interesting, since he and I have never golfed together at the same time, we have been in the same golf outings but not on the same team. After words we are having dinner at his cottage on the lake and my dad is coming over for dinner as well. I just hope I do not hit a house tonight like I did a few weeks ago.

I hope my air conditioning is fixed today. It died on me again last Friday. At least it has not been to terribly hot. I finally got screens in my front and back doors to at least let some air flow through. The windows are painted shut. My air condition repair man was my ex, however he was not that interested in fixing it this time, considering he worked on it a month ago. SO, I have found a new guy. My ex referred my to something that might come out on Saturday. I am not interested in paying premium time for a weekend. Then my ex called me today to let me know he is having a guy stop buy to look at it today, he probably has the part I need according to my ex. I told him, I already have a guy lined up to look at it. I am not sure if my ex just did not want to do it, or did not want to do it because he was on vacation. Yet, he was making service calls while he was on "vacation" because he told me that he might be dropping the sprouts off at daycare to make some service calls. They are suppose to be camping with the sprouts this week in the county.

Everyone have a safe Independence Day!