A life less normal....

It's been a busy week or two around this land.  I missed last Thursday's second week of Celebrate Yourself, mostly because I came down sick, and forgot.  Shame on me.

About two weeks ago, on January 30, my grandpa passed away.  He wasn't sick with cancer, but I had heard a few weeks before that he was in congestive heart failure and his kidney's were failing. He had been on hospice care for some time.  So, this was not much of a surprise.  And, in a lucky twist of fate, my two aunt's that do not live close to my grandpa got to come in to visit one last time and say goodbye.

We spent the rest of that week planning on how to get out to Kansas, and when to get to Kansas, and where we would stay when we got there.  Who would be coming, where would my brother meet up with us, here or there, etc, etc, etc.

So, while the kids slept and my brothers and husband watched the end of the Superbowl, I began packing for the long drive out to Kansas.  We would need very little since we would only be there for 2 nights.  We drove down on Monday, for the visitation Monday evening, stayed for the funeral on Tuesday, and had to roll back to Illinois on Wednesday.

On the ride home...

It was a long/short trip.  One that was so good, because we saw so much of our family.  Family that we don't see very often, mostly because we live far away.  But, it was so good to see everyone!  It really is amazing what happens when you grow up, because, so does everyone else.

My gorgeous cousin, and her youngest son.

So, we drove down on Monday, and of course, Miss Liv decided that was the time to be sick.  Thankfully, not tummy-sick, but fever-sick.  But, that didn't stop both of my kids from being up super early, and not sleeping for the entire 9 hour drive to Kansas.  When we went to the visitation, Olivia was sniffling, sneezing, glassy-eyed, coughing, sitting on a couch wanting to go back to the hotel.  Mia, on the other hand, was bouncing off the flippin' walls because she gets overly hyper when she doesn't sleep.  It didn't take long to decide to send Tony back to the hotel with the girls, while Derrick and I would walk back to the hotel.

That night, we put Mia in the bed with us, so that Olivia could get some sleep.  Mia had a hard time falling back to sleep, and we all did not conk out until about 11:30.  Of course, she was up by 5:30 the next morning.  Trying to be nice to my family, I took her out of the room and down to breakfast, where she flirted with the construction men that were there.  I had expected the breakfast area to be empty when it opened at 6 AM, so we wore our pj's.  I was wrong and got to show of our pj's.  Yay.

My Breakfast date

Cut to later that morning at the funeral service.  Mia was sitting on my lap and I was trying to keep her quiet as services started.  She finally did settle down, but I didn't notice that she had fallen asleep until she started snoring.  As my cousins start to notice the snoring in the middle of my grandpa's funeral, and turn around, I was struck with inappropriate laughter.  I was crying and laughing and sleep-deprived as my also sleep-deprived four-year-old continued to snore through the service.  My guess is that my grandpa was laughing with me, since he liked to find the funny, especially when it came to kids.

 Good bye Grandpa.  We'll miss you.