Visit from my best friend

Last week my best friend and her two children came to visit.  I've talked about her on this blog before, here and here.  Danise and I met years ago when we were new teachers and then after her son was born, she and her family moved back home to New Mexico, where they're from.  I traveled there many times when I was single, but only once since Karina was born (the time she got strep throat!).  Now, she and the kids and sometimes her husband come this way.  I'm hoping after Elena is older, we'll be able to go out there again too.

They were only here for a week, but we packed a lot in. 

We rented a car since Danise has trouble driving due to her neck injury from the car accident.  (The last news I got on her condition was that the neurosurgeon says she's doing better, but the spine doctor says she isn't.  She isn't feeling as much pain as she was, which is good, but she's still experiencing it in her body, which is bad.)  Then we went to the beach, caught Elena's arm between the carseat and backseat that had to be put down to let the kids out of the way back and ended up at the doctor's office (I LOVE my pediatrician and he saw us right away and fixed her arm which luckily wasn't broken!  It was the absolute worst experience of the week) but after that, everything was fun.  We went to a local museum that also has live animals that have been rescued and rehabilitated, the beach again (on a perfect day), and a local aquarium.  We also went shopping at a nearby outlet mall which was so much fun for all the girls but I don't think Danise's son enjoyed it quite as much.  He's 11 going on 12 and hitting those preteen funks.  Karina loved having the kids here, and so did Elena.  She was enamored with Colin and Karina pretty much wanted Paige to play with her constantly.  She was so upset when they had to leave that she was crying and wouldn't come outside.

This visit was kind of different in that it has hit me really hard after she left.  I just break down crying at random times because I miss her so much.  If any of you have a friend like this, who feels like someone you've known forever, like more than family, who is just some kind of kindred spirit, you understand. 

Hopefully though, next summer Elena will be more mature and maybe we can fly out there to see them.  I would really love to go back to New Mexico and hopefully not have any sick kids!  The things to see out there are just so different from Virginia, and now that Karina is older, I think she would appreciate it a bit more, too.  It would be so cool to show her the petroglyphs!  And eventually Elena, too of course but now she's just a little too little.  But in a year, she'll be 2 1/2!  That's a huge difference from 18 months.  So we'll see.  Til then, hopefully a lot more phone calls!

Hope you guys are all well! (And hey, pictures!  Woo hoo!)

 My girls at the aquarium

 The older three checking out the fish.

 Isn't that sweet?  Oh, and when we went shopping, Paige picked out matching skirts for her and Karina to wear.  No wonder Karina loved her so much!

 The four kids.  Look at little Elena just trying to be big!

 

I'm so glad Danise wasn't afraid to go in the water.  I do NOT like going in the water, am terrified of jellyfish, but Karina really wanted to go in!  Danise went out with her and I was able to stand in ankle-deep water with Elena instead.  Phew!  Karina just had the BEST time!

Possibly the weirdest post I've ever written because I'm tired, rambling, and off on tangents

*Edited to add after I finished writing this*  You followers and readers are so wonderful.  Thanks for caring even a little about my silly little life.  This post is weird, rambling, and hits on so many topics I can't keep them straight.  This would be because I am very tired.  It's been a long day, it's very hot here, and I seriously considered not even posting this.  But then I thought, hey, it's just who I am.  Tired=rambling.  Sigh.  So that said, read on if you want, and hopefully some parts of this will make sense!

Several years ago my friend started a blog.  Then she convinced me to start one.  At first I was so afraid to make it public.  The idea of people reading stuff I wrote was scary!  But I got over my fear and since then, I have met a lot of people through the blogging and general online world.  Some have even become friends of mine, even though we've never met.  I think that is so cool. 

But there's a weird downside to meeting people online like this.  And that is that sometimes they disappear (ahem like me maybe?) and you have no idea where they've gone, if they're okay, if they'll ever be back.  And no way to contact them.  And most of them, really, would probably be completely creeped out if we (collective "we", like "we, the bloggers and blog-followers of the world") started calling them at home and stuff.  I would be. 

Still, sometimes I'll realize I haven't read a post from someone in a while.  Or suddenly they're gone from Facebook and I can't help but wonder if it's me, or them, or neither.  Or their Etsy shop has no action for months and those convos stop coming. 

I also realize that I overthink pretty much everything that happens in my life, usually putting myself in the negative position.  Don't try telling me to stop.  I do it without even realizing it.  It's just part of my nature.  Anyway that's kind of beside the point.  The point was supposed to be that as awesome as it is to get to know people who, really, we don't actually know, it can be kind of stressful when they disappear. 

I don't know that there's any remedy for it.  I think of myself, how infrequently I blog these days.  Now granted, this blog does not exactly have a worldwide following of thousands of people, but that doesn't make you guys any less important.  If anything, it makes you more important, because you all think this blog is worth sticking with, even if you don't read all the posts.  Or read them all the way through.  I know you do, but even if you don't, you're still over there on the google friend list thingy.  :-)  And I think that's really fantastic and hey, thank you for that!  So anyway, thinking of myself, I know that I have become very scattered with my posts.  I know why, too, and I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but when you aren't hanging around with me or talking to me on the phone or something, you don't really know what's happening in between these posts.  (What's usually happening is:  Karina is begging me to play dolls, horses, or cars while Elena begs to play with "wawa" in the sink with the faucet running on ONLY the spray setting, or begging to go "dy" (outside) even though it's 99 degrees with what feels like 300% humidity, or begging to be held constantly...you get the idea) Sigh.  I know this is what's going on.  But still...there's always the element of the unknown for you (and me, on the blog-reading end of things).  And unfortunately, there's nothing any blogger or Facebooker or tweeter can do about it, at least not that I can think of.  Sure, I can promise to do better.  Of course I can.  But things happen.  Who's to say what's going on in the spaces unless you're standing next to me, right? 

So I guess I'll end (edit: ha ha ha, this isn't the end, I'm just trying to trick you!) with this thought:  I'll try to be better.  I'll try to check in more often with at least a little something.  But I won't promise.  I can't, it wouldn't be fair.  I just don't have the time I once did, unfortunately.  But I still value my blog and your company, just as I value the blogs and shops and FB pages and emails of my other online friends and acquaintances-who-feel-like-friends. 

Isn't it funny how strangers begin to feel like friends?  Even when I know that to them, I'm not because a lot of them are blogs I don't interact with as much as others, to me, they still feel like someone I know. 

Okay holy cow I am so seriously rambling. (Edit: ha ha ha ha ha ha it took me this long to figure it out!  Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!)  Abrupt change of topic before things get worse (Edit: wait, this is the topic change?  I've already done that like 3 times already, but now I'm going to tell you I'm going to do it.  Because that makes it better.  Oh, I just crack myself up):  I took my girls to a major theme park near us today.  We're having company come this weekend and we'll be busy so I wanted to squeeze in a day before they come.  It was supposed to be slightly cooler today than the last few days.  Um, it wasn't.  We got there at 10 and left by 1:30, and it was probably almost 100 degrees.  We mostly did the water stuff, and Karina rode a couple rides (Elena rode her first ride ever, the kiddie swings!), but mostly we sweated.  Okay, I sweated.  Sweated SO BADLY that I had to buy a towel so I could keep wiping the darn sweat out of my eyes because it was making my sunscreen run in my eyes and it was stinging so bad!!  It is so hot that my AC can't cool the upstairs off.  It's 9:45pm and my baby's room is still 82 degrees!  And our AC is set almost 10 degrees lower than that!  So I'm explaining all this because I think it's why I'm rambling.  I ramble when I'm tired (Edit: okay, we get it.  Sheesh.  I should really proofread more and then post actually edited versions of my posts.  But this is kind of funny to me tonight, so I'm going with it).

So there we go.  A weird, rambly, divergent, bizarre post to keep you going until my next rambly, divergent post, ha ha! 

You guys are the best.  Look what you put up with!

News; some random, some sad

I think I've mentioned my dad's wife on here before, but if not, I'm sharing this anyway. She passed away last night, the night of July 2nd.  She was not well, and we knew the end was coming, but I don't think anyone expected it quite this quickly.  My dad is okay but very, very upset.  They were not married an overly long time, I'm not even sure how many years.  Fewer than 10 I'm almost sure.  She was much older than he is, but he didn't care.  He adored her.  Since my parents divorced when I was five, my dad dated off and on, and always hoped to remarry some day.  But like most people, my dad has his quirks and nothing seemed to work out quite right.  Then he met Louise and they hit it off.  He was SO happy to be married again, and to be married to her.  When her health began to deteriorate, he kept her at home as long as he was able. When she was so physically weak she could not sit up unassisted, he finally had no choice but to put her in a nursing home type facility.  He spent most of every single day there.  He was there every single day.  He took amazingly good care of her.  Unfortunately, she had had a series of mini strokes that ultimately added up to the equivalent of a major stroke.  She had Alzheimer's and at the end no longer remembered her home, my dad, or anything else of importance.  I'm told that she did recognize him in some way, but could not tell him his name or who he was.  But she would hold his hand and seemed to know he was important.  I believe they did have some good moments together at the end and from what I can guess, she must have passed away in her sleep. 

My brother and I went to see her and my dad once, not long after she went into the home, and had plans to go back and see her again.  That had not happened yet.  She was not there very long.  It's only been a few weeks.  On one hand, I'm glad she didn't linger.  To me, that feels cruel to all parties involved.  On the other, I know my dad wishes she had been with him longer, and so do I.  I wish I could have seen her one more time, but I am glad that when I saw her I did tell her I loved her.  I did, too, not like a close relative, but I did love her.  She was a very very sweet woman.  Very kind, quiet, sweet.  She went downhill very quickly.

Thanks for 'listening' to me share that.  I think everyone needs to be remembered.  She's anonymous in many ways on here, but still, in another way she'll be floating around in cyberspace (or whatever they call it these days) for a long time. 



Today was my grandmother's birthday.  She's 87 today.  Saturday is my brother's birthday.  He'll be 34.  That's just crazy.  He should still be 16!! 

We have made excellent progress on our yard sale and all we have left is pricing the items.  We don't have as much as in past years, but it still looks good.  Hopefully we'll still do well.

I hope that all of you celebrating the Fourth of July tomorrow will have a nice day, pleasant weather, and lovely company.  I am just planning to have a hopefully restful day, and to see how my dad is doing.

Happy Fourth and tell everyone you love that you love them!