My Grandma

I made a trip to see my dear Grandma and family. My brave sister is her primary caregiver and keeps me in the loop as to her condition. Recently she has lost her will to live so there has been a quick decline. I timed it for Barry's days off and he stayed home with the boys so that I could have some quality one on one with Grandma and my sister. I had a nice relaxing drive over and the weather was nice and gave me no troubles. When I got there Niki had managed to get Grandma up and at the table for a bite to eat. Nik and I had cocktails. What I didn't know was that hospice was on their way over. A little awkward I suppose at 3:00 to be sitting there having happy hour :) The gals were so very nice and were very reassuring. Hospice is a very emotional transition. So much help is needed and welcome at this point but in your heart you know that your loved one will not be with you much longer.
On this trip I didn't have my boys preoccupying my mind. I noticed from the moment I walked in to the house how comforted I felt. I was the little girl sitting at the kitchen table drinking tea and reading magazines. Or coming down for lunch. Spending the night in the yellow bedroom reading my uncles old MAD magazines. I was always so close to my Grandparents. I slept in that yellow bedroom this trip and had a very restful sleep.
Such wonderful memories. I am truly blessed to have so much from them. So many of my core values come from Grandma. It came time for me to leave and I woke her up to give her a kiss good bye. She gave be a big smile. It was hard to leave this time. Usually, I am anxious to get home and get back in to my routine here. Hard because I guess there is a possiblity that I won't see her again. You just don't know. It truly felt like there was a rubberband attached to my heart pulling on me as I drove farther away. Needless to say tears have been dripping down my face off and on. So do I hope she keeps on so that I can make it back over? I don't know. I just want her to be at peace.
I stopped at North Bend on my way home to go through the Starbucks for a latte. A very nice thing happened to me there. I noticed the car ahead of me was talking to the speaker and laughing and I thought to myself what a very happy person. I pulled up to the window and went to hand the "barista" my money and he said "your drink has been paid for" I said "no, I haven't paid yet" and he said " the gal in the car ahead of you paid for it" and I said "you mean like an act of random kindness" and he said "I guess so". Just when you think there isn't much kindness left in the world. I am hoping I can pass it along some day soon.
So today I am going to start some seeds indoors. Still haven't done that. Hopefully, I can rally a couple of kids to help. I saw on a web site that our area should have its last frost sometime in the middle of April.
Baseball has officially started. Max is loving it. I am trying to remember how I actually did have fun last year. We have some conflicts of schedules with Coop's swimming and Max's baseball. It will be interesting to see us pull it off.

Bench

We are a house full of sickies!!!! Temps and runny noses and hacking coughs. Thats us :) All except Barry. Lucky guy. But we were able to do a project despite of it all. We had two of these benches with the rattan seats. The one that Wyatt sat on had started to break up and one side of the bench had no rattan anymore. So we replaced both sides with wood and upholstered the little wood seats. What is also great is that I have always wondered how long the benches were going to last and now we have a great solution. And we can easily replace the cusions as needed!!!

Had to throw in a new pic of Lucy and Max.

All for now.

50 degrees!

Can I get an Amen!!????? I am so done with the frigid weather! I feel it in my bones that things should be turning around.
Coop started swimming lessons last night. He is going T/Th at 4:30! The other two didn't want to. Max is all signed up for little league. Try outs are this Saturday so he has been throwing the ball around. Our neighbor Joe who helped Max with the hunter safety course offered to practice baseball with Max. That is going to be so nice for Max to have an extra "glove" to practice with. I am no longer an option as he throws it way to hard for me :) Wyatt is giving me trouble. He doesn't want to go to school. It is almost embarrassing when I take him and he is mouthing off about how boring it is. But when I pick him up he has so many things to tell me. I am really starting to sweat about next year. I picked up his registration paperwork for kindergarten and I realized he still needs one more vaccine!!!! He hates shots. I am literally going to have to drag him in there screaming his head off. I am not above bribing him either. Why can't all the shots be those nose spray kind????
Barry has been very busy at work, gathering our tax info up and making a fabulous little shelter/shade for the chickens in the chicken yard. It turned out great and a lot how I imagined for them. I told Barry we are going to have to post our chicken set up on the Backyard Chickens boards. Next if the weather clears up we are going to somewhat duplicate the chicken yard fence around the gardens. It will provide the chickens with a safe area in the fall to clean up our garden. They are amazing at clearing out the beds.
With the weather the way it has been I have not been able to see Nicster. I was so spoiled with my friend Charlie's place in Olympia with the covered arena. I have scheduled a riding lesson for this Friday with a very nice young gal to polish up my skills. It is very exciting . She actually will give me a lesson on her horse or come down and give me a lesson on Nicci. It feels nice to expand a little bit more with my hobby.
My seeds came in the mail. I am hoping to start some indoors although I really don't know where. Maybe in the dining room/playroom/greenhouse :)
Foot Saga Update!!!!
It still sucks! Did I mention that while making a bed I kicked the metal frame while barefoot. It turned black and blue and hurt like a hell!!! Although it doesn't hurt any worse then it did. But it is still not getting better. I am considering going back to the doctor.
I have been making it to the pool. We even went as a family on Sunday. I really hate putting a swimsuit on but swimming seems to really help my joints.
And I have a question today. Why is everyone always yelling at me? Mom!!!!!!!