Pumpkins and Dom's Birthday! 10/27/09

We decided to have the kids over to carve pumpkins for Halloween, and to celebrate our new step-grandson's birthday that was on the 21st. Not much went on, so I'll post pictures for your enjoyment!

First step was to clean out the pumpkins. The kids had lots of fun with that!






Next, the kids picked what they wanted carved and the adults did the carving.


I didn't get too many pictures of that, but here are the finished projects!




We decided to have pizza delivered for supper.


Then we had cake and ice cream and watched Dom open his presents.








We all had a good time.

This week I'm starting to look for a job, again. There's not much out there! I did get a call from Alpine Access tonight. They have another opening, but the hours would be 10am to 6:30 pm, Monday through Saturday with either Tuesday or Thursday off. Training wouldn't start until Nov 21, we'd have off Thanksgiving and the day after, but wouldn't know about Christmas off until about a week before. Todd's not excited about it since I'd work most of the day on Saturday (he only works every other Saturday during the winter). And I think we'll need to go to see his Dad for Christmas this year - it will be a tough one since Nel and Grandma Rena are both gone now. I told them I'd get back to them in the next day or so, but will probably tell them I've decided not to take it.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) I'm meeting a friend for lunch, so that will be nice to catch up with her and to catch her up on all that's gone on with us in the last month.

Onto better news..... Pictures from Tab and Brian's WEDDING!

Wednesday, October 14, 2009 our oldest was married. We were in Illinois for Grandma Rena's funeral so we couldn't attend, but we did get to see pictures. I asked Tab if I could post them on my blog so other family members (who aren't on Facebook) can see them.

The new, happy family


Ty and Sam


Angel and Alyssa


The kids.....


During the ceremony - they were married by the same person who married Sam and Jason


And just because she's SOOOO ADORABLE!!!!!......

Home again.....

We got home around 8:30 pm on Friday. Todd went to work on Saturday (they only work in the mornings on Saturday). I got most of the laundry done yesterday, so today we went to get groceries and ran a couple of other errands. We do still need to go get me a new cell phone - mine's been acting up since we were in Falls City.

It was a quick trip to Pleasant Hill IL. We left home at 7:00 pm on Tuesday and arrive there at 12:15 pm Wednesday afternoon. The family visitation was Wednesday night and there were a lot of people who came - people who had known her for a long time and a couple of the workers from the nursing home came (she had only been there since April of this year). Todd got to see a few people he hadn't seen for a long time - a couple gentlemen who used to farm the family farm outside of Pleasant Hill (one of their sons now farms it). There were also a lot of the Red Hat ladies who came. Kay, the lady who helped Grandma for years was there, also. I had spent some time with them when I was at Grandma's in early September, and Todd and I also went out for supper with them and Grandma on October 3, when we went to get her to take her to Falls City for Nel's funeral. Kay and her husband Gordon were very close with Grandma and I think Kay will probably be helping Larry with things for a while to come. Poor Kay will have to find something to occupy her time now that Grandma is gone. They used to talk many times a day and Kay had not been able to see Grandma since we had gone out to eat on the 3rd. They were on a trip when Grandma got back to Pleasant Hill and she hadn't made it to Pittsfield to see her yet. Kay was who the nursing home called Tuesday morning when they were getting ready to take Grandma to the emergency room. She was also the one the Dr. told that Grandma passed away. :( Apparently Grandma started feeling bad during breakfast Tuesday morning, and later told the nurses at the home that she thought she should go to the emergency room. The Dr. said when she arrived, her blood pressure was very low and they couldn't get a pulse. Rena had told us MANY times while we were in Falls City that she didn't like being in the nursing home. One good thing is that her last week of life was spent with family - both at the funeral for Nel, but also at the wedding of Josh and Ruth. I'm sure the trip was very hard on her.

So anyway, here are some pictures of our trip to Pleasant Hill. (You can also look back at this post to see some pictures from my trip there early in September of this year.)





This is Larry's favorite picture of his parents


The rose in this picture is from Gus - Kay and Gordon's little dog who LOVED Rena (and the feeling was mutual)


Rena and McKenna - taken last Christmas in Falls City


These pictures were of her adventures with the "Red Hat Mamas"


Flowers from the "Red Hat Mamas"


The Red Hat ladies all wore their Red Hats to the funeral


This is the view from Grandma's dining room window - it looks down on the church where her funeral was. Kate commented how odd it was that we could see the house so well from the church - especially when her casket was being moved from the church to the hearse.


She was buried next to Homer, who died January 24, 1997 (just a few months before I met Todd). At least they are together now. This was the third time I had been to the cemetery in the last 6 weeks, she took me up there during my trip and then we stopped with Todd when we went to get her before Nel's funeral.




Her funeral was very nice. The pastor who left their church years ago came back from Tulsa OK. He had also done Homer's funeral. He had some really nice things to say about her. He said that he always knew you're not supposed to have favorites in the ministry, but she was one of his. He also said she always told him that anything he had to say he could say in 15 or 20 minutes. lol He also told a few funny stories about both Homer and Rena. He had a hard time getting through it without breaking down. When he read her obituary (which can be seen here),
we all broke down when he got to the part about her being preceded in death by her daughter-in-law, Nelda Godwin. The current pastor of her church also spoke and said at the beginning of his part "What's better than one Baptist minister speaking at a funeral? TWO !!!!" He said he could just see Rena rolling her eyes at that. LOL He also read this poem - "The Dash".

After the family visitation on Wednesday, Megan, Kate, Cynthia (my sister-in-law) and I went through Rena's jewelry. She had some of them marked if they were received for special occasions. I brought a few things home and decided to wear one of Rena's necklace to the funeral and Todd wore one of Homer's tie-tacks.

While we were gone on Wednesday, Tab and Brian were married at the Justice of the Peace (the same one who married Sam and Jason). I was sad to miss it, but Tab and Sam's dad was here from Pennsylvania so at least he was there. They both have pictures on their Facebook pages and I haven't tried to get any of them so I can post them here. Maybe tomorrow I'll see if I can figure it out.

Anyway, Todd and I are going to try to relax for the rest of the day. It's pretty nice outside, so we're going to go sit in the backyard. Todd said he had a hard time yesterday - on his way home from work he told himself "I should call Mom", but then realized he can't do that anymore. We both have been having short spurts of sadness, but hopefully they will come fewer and further between as time goes on.

Another trip

We were notified this morning that Todd' 97 year old grandmother, Rena, passed away this morning. Todd and I had gone to Pleasant Hill IL to get her to take her to Falls City NE for Nel's funeral, she also stayed for the wedding on Saturday and Todd's dad was taking her home Sunday and back to the nursing home on Monday. We don't know all the details, just that she passed away this morning at the hospital. (I also visited her late August/early September on my trip.)

So tonight we are going to get Kate in Stephenville and head to Pleasant Hill IL - her visitation is Wednesday and the funeral is Thursday. I'll miss Tab's wedding tomorrow, but unfortunately there's nothing I can do. I'm so glad we have neighbors who will watch the house and help take care of the dogs. Not sure how long we'll be gone.

At last Rena will be with her husband of 64 years, Homer, who passed away Jan 1997.


I had a feeling she wouldn't be around for Christmas, but I had no clue both her and Nel would be gone.
No obit yet, I'll post a link if I have internet access there.

HOME FINALLY!!!

We arrived home about 6 pm last night. There was rain and slow traffic in Texas, so that took some extra time. We left Falls City at 4:30 am - Todd decided we could sleep in until 3:30 am. lol

Today I'll be busy. I already have laundry going. I need to get groceries and Tab and I are going to do some errands for her wedding. I told her I'd pay for her bouquet, so we'll find that today. I also need to go through all of our mail and start cleaning the house. I offered our house for the wedding reception on Wednesday.

I did bring a bunch of Nel's clothes home so I can make lap quilts with them. I'll make one for each of our four girls, one for Larry (Todd's Dad) and one for us. She wore a lot of sweatshirts, so I have a bunch of those and I'll use those for the middle of the quilts, then build around them with her old jeans and other shirts. I'm not sure I'll have enough of her clothes, but I have a whole box full of our old jeans, so I can also use them. I'll have to buy the batting and I think I'll use flannel for the back.

I think this week will be busy, so I'll have to hit the job-hunting hard next week. Wish me luck!!!

Jyl

Saturday evening....

and we made it back to Falls City. Tomorrow morning (early - 3:00 am) we are FINALLY heading back to Texas!!!! It's been a long and emotional week and a half. Monday of this week we had the memorial service for my Mother-In-Law, Nel.


The funeral home had someone make a slide-show of various pictures of her throughout her life and it was very nice. We are taking a DVD of it home to keep, along with our urn with some of her ashes in it (the rest are with Todd's dad and his brother). One of Todd's friends from high school and his wife stopped by the funeral home during the family visitation. They are our age and have a 11 year-old daughter who is already taller than her mom. Reminded me of Tab, I think she was 10 when she was my height.


Todd's dad and Grandma at the visitation:




Todd and Kate reading the list of visitors at the funeral home - there were already four pages full before we got there at 6 on Sunday.


The ladies of the church had a nice lunch after the Memorial Service on Monday.


Tuesday was a pretty quiet day, Todd's brother and family left to go home and get ready for the wedding. Wednesday Todd and I went to Milford to visit with my parents for a little. We went to lunch at the Seward Country Club, then back to the farm to visit and play dominoes. Wednesday was also the day that Megan, Kate and McKenna left. Thursday and Friday were quiet days again, just a few errands, but not too bad. Today, Saturday, we got up early and left at 8:00 am to head to Kansas City for the wedding.

That was fun and they lit a candle before the service with our family for Nel, and it was placed in the sanctuary during the service. That brought on more tears from the family so lots of us had to re-apply makeup.

McKenna had fun playing after the wedding and Todd and I both enjoyed spending time with all of them again.

She's getting so big!

We left KC about 3:45 to head to Falls City since we left the dogs here. We saw some really cool clouds!


And some neat other sites:


Tomorrow we drive HOME!!!!

We're in Nebraska again.

Todd's mom was hospitalized a few weeks ago and took a turn for the worse on September 21. We waited until Tuesday (30th) to leave Texas (3:45 am). After driving all day, we made it to Falls City, dropped the dogs off at the house and then went to the hospital. We got there at 4:50 pm and she passed away at 5:05. They had removed her feeding tube about 10 minutes before we got there and were hooking her up to morphine as we arrived because she was having problems breathing. We were in the hall talking with the nurse for a few minutes, and went back into the room in time for her last few breaths. We were all glad that we made it in time - Todd's dad was especially glad - he told me he worried all day that she wouldn't hold on until we got there.

So all the plans have been made. Sunday evening we'll have an hour of family visitation at the funeral home and Monday we'll have the memorial service at church. She decided she wanted to be cremated, so we didn't need to pick out a casket, clothes for her or pallbearers. That really made it pretty easy for us to plan. We are getting three small urns for her ashes, one will be for Todd's dad, one for his brother and one for us.Link to online obituary

Today we completed the arrangements, tomorrow we just need to get Dad's suit from the dry-cleaners. Saturday Todd and I are heading to IL to get Grandma Rena. We'll stay there Saturday night and come back on Sunday. We (Grandma Rena, Todd and I) are staying all week because Todd's nephew is getting married in Kansas City on the 10th. We'll drive home on the 11th so Todd can go back to work on the 12th. And speaking of work - I was offered a position with Alpine Access, a work-at-home company. I was supposed to start training yesterday, but since I had to commit to 30 days training with 100% attendance. It was offered to me after Todd's mom was in the hospital, but before we realized she probably wasn't going to get better. So Todd and I discussed it and last Monday I told them that I couldn't commit to the 30 days training due to her condition. They were very nice and just said I can contact them again when I can.

So that's the update for now. It will be nice to see Grandma again and that she will be able to attend the wedding, but I worry about Todd's dad after everyone goes home. I hope he will do fine and I'm worrying about nothing. And it will be nice to get home again.