Three Day Weekend wrap up

So much happened this weekend, I'm going to go backward from today. Monday: Despite specific instruction otherwise, The Oldest woke me up a mere 6 hours after I went to bed to ask me about a video camera. I couldn't fall back asleep, so the day started a cople of hours earlier than I'd planned. Ran to pick up doughnuts for The Boys after my shower, and put together snacks for the pool. Spent half the day hanging poolside while the boys swam and played. We were the only people at the pool all day, and the kids wanted friends to come over, but I'm sure they all had other plans. Kind of bummed us all out though. We all had sunscreen on,and we all got burnt. Damnit. Watched part of Alice in Wonderland together before their bed time. Made a couple of calls and briefly talked to my mom. Sunday: The Dude had The Boys for about 10 hours. I was dog sitting, and couldn't really go out of town, like I really wanted to, so I wandered about looking for shelving options, settling on a couple and putting them together, cleaning house, unpacking the rest of The Boys' room and basically making myself sore as hell with physical labor. Didn't really eat all day, and had killer cramps, so I suppose there would have been worse ways to spend time... Saturday: Slept in a bit and The Boys made their own breakfasts. Tried out my new French coffee press, but made the coffee too weak, and discovered that it didn't keep my coffee hot enough for as long as it took me to drink it. Will be better for camping with a gazillion people. Packed a picnic and took The Boys and The Dog to a local park that they wanted to visit. It wasn't as fun for them as they remember from the last time, but we hung out for half the day and walked the entire perimeter, visited another park for another walking tour and chilled at home for the night. Friday: Spent the afternoon putting together art portfolios for the 18 4th and 5th graders I had this year. There are a few amazingly talented kids in this group, and I hope they all continue to enjoy creating and working on their art. Was supposed to go to a party, but it was moved to next Friday. I took The Boys to my sister's to hang with their cousins, and I ended up kind of crashing her thing with a couple of her long time friends - one of whom actually reads this blog, and better pick up American Pie and watch it already. I saw it at Target for $7.50 and almost picked it up for her. I hope everyone has a great week, and I have end of school year activities to prepare for, so yeah, still busy as hell...

It's been a while

About a month since my last post. I've spent this time struggling with and adjusting to being a single parent. I had to say goodbye to my dear beloved Duke after spending the last 15 years with him as a constant calming influence in my life. So many changes in my life.

A very dear friend, who has graced my Wicked Wednesday posts as D, and my Thoughtful Thursday posts at least once is essentially dying of cancer. This makes me so very sad. She is my age, still young, and going through a similar situation with her husband. She lives too far away to see regularly, but as soon as we know her new combo chemo schedule, I am going to go and visit.

My cousin's husband died on Mother's Day. We were not close, but he was still a part of my life and my family, and I will be sending my cousin a card and an e-mail to express my sorrow for her loss. They have 4 sons, 3 of whom are adults and a grandchild, so that makes it even more sad, that all of these people have been robbed of knowing him. He died of advanced and untreated cancer which riddled his intestines, and then spread to the rest of his body. That entire family follows a religion that does not seek medical care, choosing to handle heath issues within their belief system. In this instance, it makes me angry, but it was his choice to not seek medical care. I respect that decision, but not the way it is impacting his family.