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.