Wow, I know it has been an incredibly long time since the last time I posted, but please forgive me; it’s been an exhausting month.
Let me try to update you on our life. May 31st, we finished up school for the year. That was such a huge relief to see the end and put our books to rest. I’ve finally had a chance to catch up on many projects around the house, the first of which was our front yard. I tell ya, it has been neglected for far too long. I finally ripped out all of the lamb’s ear in favor of petunias. Now the front is awash in color again and I really like it. I also replaced the plastic border with natural rock. Oh, what a difference that makes! One outdoor project down, fifteen hundred left to do!
Next came a big step up for both Mike and our daughter. They both passed their karate belt testing and on the 12th of June, put on their blue belts! I’m so proud of them! The have progressed from white, through yellow, orange, and purple, and now to blue. Next is green, then brown, then black. I’m telling you, you don’t want to mess with my 7 year old or her daddy! :o)
Let’s see. The 17th of June was Father’s Day, then the 18th was hubby’s birthday (oh, wait, he’s as old as I am now, HA!) and then on the 20th, my grandma passed away. Which brings me (rather quickly) to where we are now: Corvallis, Oregon. We left home on Friday morning (the 22nd), stayed overnight in Clovis with some good friends (hi Jen!), then spent the next night in the Castle Crags area of Northern California and arrived here last Sunday.
Since then, everything has been a blur. I’m not sure what day it is, what the date is, how long we’ve been here or anything else to do with time. If you knew my grandma, you’d know she was a young married mother during the depression and WWII. She lived through things you and I just read about in history books. She kept every single scrap of every single thing that passed her fingers. She was given new towels, but would pack them away for when her rags were totally useless. She was given gifts and tucked them away in case someone else needed them. She saved every magazine, every piece of advertising, every apropos cartoon, every interesting article. She saved every letter ever written to her (with the intention of returning them to the authors). She saved stamps and eyeglasses, and you should see her medicine cabinet. Most of it could easily be put straight into a museum.
I found a field surgeon’s kit from WWII. There are scissors, clamps and other tools in pristine condition. I found a massive vat of Vaseline for 20 cents. I found iodine in original packing from the early 1930’s. Heck, I found vinyl’s from early 20th century and a picture of my GREAT grandma when she was 16. And you wouldn’t believe the racy picture of my grandma…topless and dressed only in a grass skirt, turned and coyly looking over her shoulder at the camera. Truly, you cannot even begin to imagine what a journey I’m on. It’s emotional, draining, rewarding and interesting. You never know what you might find in the next drawer, or under the next pile of magazines.
Yesterday, the 26th, we (meaning my mom, dad and I) buried my grandma. It was also my mom’s 60h birthday. Tomorrow is the first of two memorial services. This one is at my grandma’s church, mostly for her friends here locally. Mike will take the kids to a park or something of that nature while my mom and dad and I go to the service. There is a second memorial service after the family reunion this weekend in southern Oregon, so we will have them go to that one with the rest of the extended family.
If you are the praying type, please pray for our family and everyone who was touched by my grandma. They are far flung and too numerous to count. She was a very, very special woman indeed.
That’s it for now. I do not know when I will post again, as we have a long way to go here. I’m thinking about returning home after the reunion, then coming back up for another couple of weeks while Mike is away on travel. We’ll see where God leads.
