October 24, 2008

Heading on out....


I took this picture with my cell phone so it is not the greatest... but I thought it would be worth posting.. I haven't done a lot of decorating but we thought this would help us get into the groove.

I am heading up to Washington for the weekend... I am going to watch my two little grandsons for the weekend and they keep calling to see if I am on the way.. cracks me up.

Robert is going to come up tonight and spend a day with us.

The weather has been beautiful, cold but beautiful.

I have made the decision that I have to get myself going and start scrapbooking.. my goal is to try and do a page a week and if I can more. wish me luck!

Have a great weekend everyone.

October 15, 2008

I went out today....

I went to the hospital today... I felt it was time for me to get out of myself and go do some volunteer work.. I was so nervous about going out ... I knew I would cry when I saw my friends that work there. soooo... I did and they loved me.. and told me it was ok to cry.. and it was good. I got some work to do that I actually can do from home for a couple of days. oh yea!! and those brats grabbed hold of me and made me get a flu shot, they said that my immune system is really run down and I needed to do it... ackkkkkkk!! but hey I didn't even feel when he gave me the shot.

October 04, 2008

Time to let go...

This is a picture of mom exactly one year before she passed.. we were on our Alaskan Cruise.

Last weekend was the scheduled memorial for mom. Roxane arrived Friday and everyone else arrived throughout the day on Saturday. For those who arrived early, they were treated to breakfast as we visited and many took turns going to the beach. The weather even cooperated and it turned out to be a beautiful day.

Before the memorial, we all met at McKeown's for dinner , we had the back room all to our selves. It was a nice gathering and we toasted mom. You had to be there to appreciate the toast but we were all sure mom was smiling.

After dinner, it was off to the Cove for the memorial. This was a special place for mom and a fitting place to scatter her ashes. As we all gathered, we had a moment of silence and then everyone has a small part of mom's ashes and scatted them along the rocks. ok... now don't freak out... but I scattered my dogs ashes too... and my sister was also ready to let her husband go and she and her daughter scattered his ashes as well.I am sure that mom was very happy they were all together. I have kept my dogs ashes for 3 years... I told my husband.... could you see if I kept mom's.. I would never let them go. Each person had a pink a balloon (breast cancer ) to let go after we scattered her ashes...

It was hard to say good bye and release her... we all cried and hugged each other. As we watched the balloons float toward the sky out of nowhere comes a jet(now you guys may not find that strange but around here you don't see anything but private planes and not that many). The trail of smoke out of the back of the jet looked pink.. I am sure that was just for mom. It was hard but everyone said they felt a sense of closure.

My sweet cousin Karen volunteered to take pictures and as you can see did a wonderful job. She took many more photos and other family members took them also... but I think they were just too personal to blog them.










This is Jade's first time trying a panorama shot... it came out awesome.


This was the sweatshirt I had on.. I thought it was appropriate for mom.

We were going to have a bonfire on the beach.. but I think everyone was just to wiped out to do it.. It was the hardest thing we have ever done in our lives.. we went back to the house and relaxed. Sunday everyone stopped by to to say bye and head back to their homes (my siblings all live in Washington State).

My son and his family said they were going to head out and were going to the Portland Zoo on their way home. They created quite a stir and before you knew it, we said lets all go.... and off we went. The trip was uneventful and included Jade and his family,Roxanne and her family, Laurie & Tom and Robert and myself. Wow was it hot in Portland... there was no parking we had to walk to a shuttle area... take the shuttle to the Zoo. Yikes.. Who's bright idea was this!! Actually everyone had a good time and you know... seeing the new baby elephant was so worth how hot it was.



On the way home we stopped at Camp 18 for dinner, We had the greatest waiter... he kept us laughing all night.

Monday morning Laurie brought brought coffee and breakfast for Florence and myself before heading home. They finally got out of here by 1pm and made it safely home. It was Robert's birthday so he took the day off and played golf with his best friend Monte.

It was so hard when everyone left... I am told to take a day at a time. Some days it is hour by hour. This is a poem I found on the Internet... says it all...

I wanted to thank you again for all the prayers.

I wish I could have expressed myself better with this post... it feels flat and it deserves more. I wanted it to be more celebratory that she is in heaven and happy.. I truly believe that... but it still hurts to not have her here in the physical.

October 03, 2008

The disappearing photos

I have been trying and trying to figure out why when I go on my blog the photos are there and sometimes they are not... have you had a problem with that or is it just me?

The rain has started! I hope it is going to be a mild winter.

I noticed my husband was wearing a purple ribbon on his uniform today... I asked him if that was for domestic violence and he said yes. I asked if he would wear a pink one because it is also Breast Cancer Awareness Month... he told me he would.... whoooo hooo, what a man I have.

* update * I think it is LiveWriter that is causing the problem.. all of the photos that disappear are the ones that I did on LiveWriter... bummer.