Sucky Day!

Until Jim died, I had pretty much avoided going to funeral homes. Never had a reason to. Now it seems I'm on a first name basis with them.

My Dad died yesterday morning while my Mom and I were in Connecticut visiting Sarah. We got the call shortly after the fact and Sarah (the best executive secretary out there) was able to get our flights changed from Tuesday to yesterday. And without a charge! The flight from Minneapolis to Minot was totally booked so I don't know how she managed to get two seats on it but am thankful she did. We arrived home at around 7 last night and today we get to go to the funeral home and make the arrangements. And I'm sure they won't be good enough for my sister Carol. She doesn't want to get involved but sure likes to voice her opinions after the fact.

The funeral is on Wednesday and the only good part of that is my sister Mary, her husband Jeff and their doggy, Rico are coming to stay with me.

I'm also thankful my Dad is finally out of the nursing home that he hated. They took very good care of him there but he hated the fact that he had to be there. I did too. I have visions of Jim meeting him at Heaven's gate and giving him the grand tour.

Another State For Stella!!

I told her she was coming with me this time when I brought my big suitcase up out of the basement but I'm not sure she believes me yet.

She's added some states to her ever growing list of states she's been in. I took her carrier out today and tucked into the pocket were the tickets for Alex, Stella and I when he came home from MA with me.

Let's see, she's been in ND, SD, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, New Jersey (although this was just long enough to go outside the airport for a potty break), NH, MA several times, and now Connecticut. Nine states is a lot for a dog! I still wish she could get a frequent flier number and I'm sure glad she's such a good traveler.

Ooh, I forgot, she was born in Florida. That makes it 10 states!

Yikes! I have 5 loads of laundry to do before I even start to think about packing. My plane doesn't leave until 11 AM so I guess I'll have plenty of time to pack before I have to leave here at 10 tomorrow morning.

Poor Ms. Bear!!

Not only did she get her muzzle chewed off, she has a gaping hole in her back with stuffing coming out and had her squeaker removed. And this was within the first hour of her arrival at our house. I think Stella is making it plain that she's the only furry animal that gets to live here.

2 More Sleeps

Jim always counted off how many days until a trip by how many nights we had to sleep until the big day.
We now have 2 more sleeps until we'll be at Sarah's. Although I'm looking forward to spending two weeks with them, I am not looking forward to the trip with my Mom and Stella in tow. Keep your fingers crossed the departure gate at the Minneapolis airport is close to the one we'll be arriving at. Mom is too stubborn to ask for assistance but she can't handle walking very far and I'm going to try to go with no sedation for Stella. Wednesday could be a L-O-N-G ass day!

Welcome to the age of e-readers Mom!

I went with my 83 year old Mother yesterday and she bought a Kindle. I finally convinced her she needed one. I'm tired of her trying to unload her used books at my house! :) She reads about 5 books a week!
We had a short lesson on it yesterday and she can turn it on and read now. I don't know how well she got the ordering of books down but I'll be with her for the next two weeks so by the end, she should be fine. It really is an easy machine to master.
Plus of course I have her account info and can order books for her any time. I got online this morning and bought her 5 books. They were all free so she can't get mad about that :)

OMG!

I have one pair of jeans that I really like the fit on but they're getting old. I always feel good when I wear those jeans so I decided I needed to get online and see if I couldn't find a pair like them.

The ones I had were a size 27, which is pretty foreign to me. I didn't find them but I found a pair that looked like them in a different wash and came in a 27. The brand was AG which I'd never heard of before but I loved that the inseam was 34. They were even on sale for half of what I had paid for the custom clown pants. I ordered them. They came today and I tried them on and they're HEAVEN!!! No wonder they call them the Angel! Best fitting pair of jeans I've had in a long time. They were made for tall skinny girls. And they look good on me!! Well, you know what I mean, as good as I can look for my age, but I've been searching for these jeans for years! I'm so excited!!

I went online to look for more and found out that these jeans are normally priced at $150-175 a pair!! I'd love to have several more pairs and I am thrilled they have them in white too because I've been looking for white jeans for years without any luck. Guess I'll have to start saving my pennies! And why couldn't I have fallen in love with a pair of jeans from Wallyworld?

Jeans

I ordered the custom made jeans and after waiting forever for them to be delivered I got them last week. What a joke!! They looked like clown pants on me so back they went. Hopefully I'll have a little time in Connecticut to shop for some. Ick!

Happy Birthday Pete, Allan and Jason!!

I went to visit my Dad today and he told me that in 14 years he'd be 100 :)

He always makes me smile. Happy birthday Dad, I love you!

Jason turned 40 today, how is that even possible??
Man, I'm old.

See ya next week Allan, what a great birthday gift... two weeks with me, my mother and my dog! You should be nominated for sainthood :)

20/25

I had an appointment with the eye doctor today. Found out I'm not perfect like I originally thought :)
I see 20/25 instead of 20/20. I'll take it!!! :)

Wild Weekend

Or at least Wild Friday night! We danced and partied until 3:30AM up in Mohall and had a blast!
Saturday was a different story, we were showing our age :(
Years ago we'd have been ready to party Saturday night too. However, somewhere along the way, I got old. I was in bed last night at 8:10!! And I'd venture to guess that Deb, Jennifer, Shirley, Linda and Patty were probably in bed early too :) Jury is out on Nancy though, she's the young one and recovers faster than we do :)

Dear Jim,

I miss you in so many ways every day that I can't even count them all. Today I missed you even more because I also missed you when I was wiping out the car. Thank you so much for taking such good care of my cars for all those years. I spent 1/10th the time you used to spend just wiping down the inside and it sure looks like it too. I miss you :(

In the 33 years we were married, I always drove a shiny clean car filled with gas and I never, ever did it myself. Man, I sure need to have my car detailed!

Grandma's Roses

At Grandma's funeral, we had a bouquet of 5 roses representing her 5 grandchildren. White for the 2 boys and cream with rose colored tips for the 3 girls. I took the bouquet home and days later was marveling at how beautiful the girl ones still looked. The boys' unfortunately were dead. I decided to take the remaining 3 and have them freeze dried.

I picked them up today and couldn't be more pleased with the way they turned out. They are very fragile so I just tied a ribbon around them and laid them in my curio cabinet where I put a lot of things that have meaning to me. Because the curio cabinet has a mirror in the back, the picture makes it look like there are 6 roses.

I stood and looked at the finished product and although it needs a good cleaning, I love my curio cabinet!

I have a story for everything in it :)

Why???

Why would men in their early 60's who live in condos that have a snow shoveling service spend time rearranging the snow on their lawns?

The guy across the street spent the better part of yesterday afternoon redistributing the snow on his lawn. The sidewalks and driveway had been done by the service last week and we're going to get a lot of snow before next Spring. Seems like a giant time suck to me.

And then the guy who lives next door to him came home from work and saw what his neighbor did so he did the same thing. Do these guys have that much spare time on their hands or are they just that anal?? And why risk a heart attack from moving all that heavy snow around at their ages??

Grossness!!

I had to use the bathroom at Allison's on Saturday and her main floor bathroom is the one the boys use. I always check the seat before I sit down because Jameson and Gage are gross. Sure enough, I had to clean the seat before I could sit down. I came out to have a talk with them. I told them that they have got to remember to lift the ring seat before peeing. And I also told them that if they don't lift it at my house I was going to cut off their penises. With luck that scared them into at least lifting it at my house!