What a year we've had.

Today is the first anniversary of Nel's passing.  Brings back lots of memories of the emotional  two or three weeks our family went through last year.  Two weddings and two funerals in the span of 15 days.  Lots of miles we put on our vehicles going to Falls City, Kansas City and Pleasant Hill during that time.  Larry's come a long way and doing better than I thought he would.  I can tell Todd still misses his mom a lot, but I hope it's becoming easier for both of them. 

I'm still working on the quilt top I brought home at Christmas, but I use her sewing machine quite a bit.  I used some of her fabric to make a blanket for Josh and Ruth's baby, which I think they probably appreciate.

It's nice to see reminders of both Nel and Rena in the house.

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.