Sad News

B’s mother-in-law passed away early Sunday morning per her own request to be removed from the ventilator and not resuscitated.  I spent the night with B and Flash’s kids on Friday night when it looked like she wouldn’t make it through the night.  She rallied a bit on Saturday but by nightfall things were looking grim again.  J and I received a phone call at 11 PM on Saturday night saying this was probably it.  J rushed over to be with the kids while I stayed home with ours.  By 4 AM on Sunday morning Flash’s mom was gone.

I am comforted that she is finally pain free and in a much better place but I feel so helpless.  As a result, I cooked like crazy all Sunday.  I delivered 2 meals complete with sides and pumpkin rolls for dessert.  Then I ran the causeway to burn off the rest of my anxiety.  I wish there was more I could do to console them.

I doubt B will ever forget her 40th birthday.  And not in a good way.  I brought over her presents and the decorations that I had been working on for her surprise party that never happened.  It saddens me to know that she was not able to view the giant cut-out 4 and 0 made up of old black & white photos from her past with joy.  And the “40 Sucks” lollipop bouquet kind of lost its funniness amidst such turmoil.

I hope that we will be able to celebrate one day when pain from this loss has lessened a bit.  For now, I’ll always be a phone call away.

Advertisement

‘Tis the Season for Pool Parties

I can’t believe I haven’t posted about this yet.  Dr. Cindita and her husband, Secret Agent Man, were here!  And we had a pool party to celebrate!

They stopped by Florida (from San Francisco) on their way to a vacation in Vieques, Puerto Rico.  Cindita is from here and has many family and friends who still live in the area.  She wanted to have a get-together at the beach for everyone and have Secret Agent Man’s family drive in from Deltona.  But none of the local beach pavilions with grills were available on the date that she needed.  I offered up our house as an alternate location since our backyard is pretty much a family party paradise.

The idea was for everyone to be able to relax, converse, drink, eat and be merry while the children played.  I think we achieved those goals.  If the party had been held at the beach it would have been more difficult for people to interact.  The pavilion and grill would have been up the stairs at the park while the beach would have been down below.  The party would have been divided between food and water play.  I love that we were able to make both happen in the same location.  It was such fun catching up with people I haven’t seen in a while.

This is a photo of all of the people at the party who graduated from my high school.  Classes of 1971, 1990 and 1994 are represented.

It was a long afternoon filled with lots of yummy food (everyone brought a side dish to share) and sunshine and laughter.  I love being able to share moments like this with one of my best friends.  Even if Cindita did let a slight jab slip about a texted “happy birthday” message instead of an actual phone call.  I was guilty of this offense along with another friend.  But as a busy mother of two kids who are in school- she’s not only lucky that she received a text message on her actual birthday but that I also found time to mail her card and gift that got there on time.  I love her and, of course, would not purposely hurt her feelings.  It’s just that most days I’m doing good to remember to charge my phone and take a shower.  🙂

Family BBQ

Wildman’s elementary school hosted a family BBQ a couple of weekends ago.  The PTO held a poster contest to advertise the event.  The photo above is the winning design.  It will be put on next year’s family BBQ t-shirts.

Fun contests and entertainment filled the afternoon from noon to 4 PM.  When we arrived we bought our tickets and headed to the food pavilion to have lunch!

After we had sufficiently stuffed ourselves with everything from hot dogs and pizza to cookies and watermelon, we decided to check out the raffle baskets and silent auction items.  Each grade collected money and put together a themed basket to raffle off.  Tickets were $1 apiece and you could put as many tickets as you wanted into the drawing for the baskets.  Kindergarten did a Lego theme.  It was adorable!  Sadly, we did not win a single thing…

J took the kids to the playground while I went to photograph the watermelon-eating and jump rope contests.  My boys were hot and tired from their morning t-ball game and refused to participate in any of the contests…  Oh, well.  I understand that.

I joined everyone back at the playground after I’d taken a bunch of pictures.  The kids were even more hot and tired by that point so we decided to call it a day.  We ended up taking the boat out for what ended up being one of the most pleasant island trips we’ve ever had.  I so wish I had brought my camera…