One month

Today is one month that Mom has been gone. It still seems like a dream/nightmare. It seems like yesterday that we all sat in her ICU room and listened to her heart stop beating. To add insult to injury, our cousins, 18 year old son was involved in a car wreck on Wednesday.

He didn't make it. It's so weird. Their world will be a blur for quite some time. They will go into his room, just wander around, look at all of the stuff in his room, smell his clothes and cry. They will keep themselves so busy that they won't have to think about anything.

Cause once you stop, then you think.

And while I'm on the subject of thinking...What lesson am I suppose to be learning here??? That childrens and parents hearts can be broken?? I mean, its a TOTALLY different hurt, but its hurt just the same. It's really kind of strange. Tracy, our cousin is the father of Wade, the 18 year old. Tracy is related to us on our Dad's side. When Mom and Dad divorced, Tracy still came out to the house to visit.

That side of the family still thought of Mom as part of the family. And quite a lot of them came to show their respect to Mom. We asked Tracy to be a pall bearer at Mom's funeral. Now he and his wife are having to deal with the loss of their little boy.

What is going on here? Whatever it is...I wish it would stop.

A Day of First

First of all, lookie at my new computer. It's RED...I love RED! It's my signature color, not really I like blue too. There's my lesson plan book for school, it's already full and waiting for next week. Isn't it pretty? Mike got a pretty good deal so Michael and I got new laptops. We needed them since our others are now obsolete. This has been a day of many first and I know more are to come.

1) This is the first in many, many years that Kemp Special Education Department began classes without Mom. You can call and still hear her voice on the answering machine.
2) This Friday will be the first High school football game that Mom will not attend to see Caitlyn perform. So I guess I'll have to go watch her.
3) This is the first time that I have posted my phone number on a "For Sale by owner" sign. That sign will be put in Mom's yard.
4) Today the "Dancing With the Stars" celebrities were announced and I couldn't call Mom to let her know who they are.
5) This is the first day of public school.
6) My niece and nephew began their first day of school at a new school.
7) We will begin our third year of homeschooling next Tuesday.
8) This is the first year that our grass isn't brown in August!
9) This is the first time in a long time that I have talked to all of my sisters in one day and no one ticked the other off!!!
10) Tonight the Democratic Convention will begin in Denver. They will be nominating the first black man for President. Why he picked Joe Biden and not Hillary I will never understand...I'm just saying.

So there's my little list of "first".

Oh, by the way, I made it known in my last post that I didn't want my GWTW stuff sold in a garage sale...I want it all to go to Nancy Sapp Purdy. I know that she has coveted it for a couple of months now. Your welcome Nancy!! LOL!!!

Cleaning and Counting Down

Yesterday, I cleaned Mom's house. It was something that I needed to do. I tell you...she was the basket and "little" wooden shelf queen! She also collected Santas so we have quite a few of those.

And for a little, bitty woman she had a TON of clothes. She owned enough tank tops to clothe Cedar Creek Lake!!

The sisters and I will be having a garage sale in a few weeks. For the record...when I die...DO NOT SELL MY "GWTW" STUFF IN A GARAGE SALE! Make sure you sell it to a GWTW collector and get a GOOD price!!!

Anyway...

We are almost ready for school, 2 weeks and counting. Actually, we have everything and could begin tomorrow if we wanted but mentally I don't think either of us are ready. Everything the past couple of weeks has all run together. It's like I've lost time somewhere and can't figure out where it went.

And no...I'm NOT having a blond moment!!

Not to mention we've stayed up late watching the Olympics. Leslie over at Recovering Noah is trying to get reimbursed from Michael Phelps for losing sleep and neglecting her family!
She is such a mess!

My brother in-law, Michael. We have to many Michael's in our family. My husband, Mike, our son Michael and the bro in law, Michael. His last name is Krywucki (Crywookie) people call him Wookie, like Chewbaca...He's a pretty big guy but not as hairy. In fact he doesn't have much hair at all. Anyway, he sent me a link to some GWTW checks! I had not seen them before. They are so adorable! You can also get the little stickers with your address on them.

Mike, my husband, not the son or bro in law, said "I have to look at those two enough as it is, I refuse to use them as legal tender......" shame on him!!! I might have to order one box.

Counting days...

It's been 15 days since Mom died. I keep expecting her to come barging through the door, dropping her purse into the recliner and asking what's for dinner.

I keep waiting to hear her honk as she drives by then Amanda or I would call her and ask "Just where are you going"? Then she would laugh that cackling laugh!

The sisters and I will be going to her house to go through things. I just keep thinking that if we take care of the place and water the flowers that she will come home soon. Like she's on vacation or something...

Anyway...life goes on.

I have been trying to get school lessons together for school in September. We'll be getting together with some friends for science and history may be a booger this year! From looking at my lesson planner, Amanda will be a busy little 5th grader!

She'll be going through the Bob Jones 5th grade curriculum except for science and history. Those subjects she'll be using Apologia Astronomy and American History from Beautiful Feet. Plus we are adding AOP Elementary Spanish. So begins another year of homeschooling.

August 3rd was my 2nd bloggin' anniversary! I kind of forgot about it. So much has happened in a year. Michael went to GFA and India. Amanda is now a tween. I went through some sort of funk. But there will be many first from now on though. The first Thanksgiving and Christmas without Mom, things like that.

We've been up late every night since 8/8/08. All we have done in the evenings is watch the Olympics! It kind of convicts you to get in shape after watching gymnastics and swimming events...well, not so much really.

Wow, I jumped from death to homeschooling then to the Olympics must be the ADD.

We did it for real...

Remember this?? http://dreama-coop.blogspot.com/2008/04/we-buried-momma-on-sunday.html

That day was funny! Mom and I had a good time with it! Everyone thought she was nuts for doing it but I'm glad I got to help her out with it.

This time it was for real though. Mom passed away on July 29, 2008. We buried her Aug. 1, 2008. The sisters and I had to come together and make some tough decisions. But the tougher part is yet to come.

The day to day routines we will try to get back into: work, school and our families. The past three weeks have been like a blur. The last thing Amanda and I did with Mom was eat at the Tea Room here in town.

Our Mom was the glue that held our little family together. Now we have to try and make it without her. She was my best friend! I don't know how to do it. I keep thinking that we have relatives that smoke, drink, have done drugs and they are still alive. Mom didn't do any of that and look what happened.

We have had lots of family support over the past few weeks and for that we are very appreciative.

The funeral was nice...as far as funerals go. Our cousin did a slide show to music for us. Mom loved to hear Barbara Streisand so we used a couple of her songs. Our great uncle did some of the service then my husband Mike did the rest. They both did a good job.

At the visitation there were 225 lines signed in the book and it was standing room only at the funeral. It was very humbling to see all of the people that Mom touched.

As for the relationships with my sisters...I talked to the youngest and we are ok. The other two I still have to talk with. If this is the way the God wanted us to make up and get along with one another, He could have found another way to do it.

I'm not angry or mad at God for allowing this to happen. I'm just not seeing the point of it right now. What would His purpose be for this? What lesson am I suppose to learn??

Anyway...I love you Mom and you will be deeply missed!!!!!!