It's been a while...

Let me get caught up here. Last Thursday we took the kids to Tractor Supply to see the peeps and duckies. Well at that point they only had the peeps. The duckies didn't make it in yet and actually they should be in now. Road trip!! :o) Brycen loved them! Josh grabbed a few of the peeps and held them so Brycen could touch the tiny animal. So cute!

Friday our vehicle was supposed to be done but he ran into another minor problem. Just a simple seal that needed to be replaced so he had to get the part. We were going to go to the Living Stations at Church with Jack but he forgot about it and plus I couldn't find a babysitter. I didn't think that the kids would have done very well during their bed time at Church with a million other people. So, we went over to Elaine's house to visit with Jack. In her Will she had it that he could live there for up to five years. We really don't care if he stays longer than that. It's not a problem. We had a nice visit! Jack had an Easter Egg hunt for Brycen around the house and he gave the kids their Easter goodies. Some of the things in the baskets Elaine had purchased long before so it was nice for them to have that one last thing from her. Jack made some Apple Dumplings so we ate and talked for a while.

Saturday was the big Easter Egg hunt with the Mom's Group. One of the mom's from the group belongs to a church that was putting on a community egg hunt and she wanted to make sure that we all knew about it. They had 8,000 eggs!!! Yes you heard me correctly! Wow! They had sections roped off and you situated yourself in the category where you belong. 0-3 year olds and so on. I made Josh go on the egg hunt with Brycen so I could take some pictures or attempt to. Boy there was alot of people. After he got his eggs we didn't stay long because we had to go to New Castle to pick up the vehicle.

Sunday was Easter and it was a difficult one since we always spent it with Elaine. We got up early and went to 8:00 am mass and met up with Jack. Church was packed and we got pushed to the front of the room and Josh went back to where Jack was to bring him up with us. The sermon was very touching with it's topic being about death. He broke it down into the three types of people and I was able to fid some easy examples in my own life. Overall live your life to the fullest and don't be afraid of death. When mass had ended I invited Jack to go to the cemetary with us. He hesitated at first but accepted. The funeral home has a gorgeous marker that represents her and the ground is nicely manicured. It was hard to hold back the emotions as Jack broke down. My heart aches now when Brycen says it's time for grandma to wake up. He is too young to miss someone this much. All he wants is to hear his grandma's voice and for her to hold him. *sighs* So, on a different note, my FIL came in for Easter from Ohio. I would say it was a treat but he was just different. Not different like treating us bad but oh I don't know. All I want to say to him is that you are the one who made the mistake with your marriage and with the fact that you never contacted or visited Elaine during her final weeks. Don't take it out on us! At least we had a great meal so that helped ease things a little bit. I really could have done with out my parents ruining things. Would I expect any different from them not really. Just a little understanding would be nice. This holiday was difficult enough so don't be over a hour and a half late for your visit with my children and expect it to be ok and wonder where we were at.

Changing the subject. Monday we went over to Jack's and helped the family fill out the thank you's from the funeral. We filled out over a hundred of them and still wasn't done. Ran out of cards so we had to stop for the night.

I was in a little depressed mood on Tuesday. Just coming down from the weekend business and thinking about Elaine. I had a good cry when the kids were napping and it just hurts all over again. When Josh came home he knew I was in a funk and tried to lighten things a bit and offered for us to go out of the house. So of all places we go to Walmart. He hates that store but we needed a few things so he said ok. Walked around the store and ran into some of Butler's finest. :o) The trip helped a little.

Yesterday I sat for two hours in the morning and just wrote in the journal I have for Elaine. I have been writing about events, feelings, things that she used to do, and so on to help keep those memories alive in writing. So that my children when they are old enough can sit and read those things and learn what their grandma was all about. I had Josh read what I wrote when I left to go to the bank. He said everything was very nice and I encouraged him to take time out and write in it himself. I hope he does that because he obviously would have more memories than I would about her. I spent much of yesterday cleaning my second floor. Putting laundry away and just cleaning. Josh had left to have dinner with Jack so I took the kids back upstairs after our dinner to finish things up. Wow were they roudy. Rolling around and jumping on the mommy daddy bed as Brycen calls it. I am surprised I got as much done as I did because there was several close calls of someone falling off.

Today we have a playdate at the local park. It is at 1:00 so I will have to see how the kids do before that. Arianna has been going down for a nap rather early lately and has some more teeth poking through. Such a cranky girl. I forgot my sunglasses at the venue where I had my benefit auction so I am thinking of going to Kohls late morning here to get another pair. That is where I got them and can't find any around here that I liked as much. I am getting things in order around here and I will have to see how this structured schedule during the day works for me. See if he helps keep my mood away from one of being depressed. I think I may get annoyed with the schedule but its worth a try.

I got Arianna's Birthday invites filled out and out in the mail box this morning. So cute! They have Monkeys on them because she loves her Monkeys. Loves them! These next few weeks I will be praying that it is nice for her party along with a little warm so that I can host it outside. If not I will have probably around 60 people in my house. :o) Also I finished up my own thank yous from our end of the funeral stuff. From flowers that were sent to the house along with all of the food that was very helpful during such a difficult time.

Well one of my shows I watch in the morning is on now so I am going to relax on my couch for a bit with my hot tea. I hope that you all have a great day!

Weekend

Saturday we decided to go to my father-in-laws place over in Ohio. The kids and I still weren't feeling 100% but we didn't want to make him wait another week since we were supposed to go the week before. He had some things that he got for us that we had to pick up so that was the main reason for going. Brycen had fun playing with his pappy and was all tuckered out for the ride home.

The visit was alright for me. The boy scout camp doesn't excite me too much. It is actually rather boring. When Josh and I were engaged and even just married I always had homework to do when we went to camp. Josh would help his dad do odd jobs around the camp and I would sit in the office and do my homework. One of my last classes at SRU was a summer class at Pymatuming and it was a shorter drive from Rock Creek, OH than it was from Butler so I lived at the boy scout camp for a month. Josh came on the weekends to visit and we talked on the phone each day. So adding to the fact that it is boring for me, I lived there for a month and know that there is absolutely nothing to do over there. I used to go for walks around the camp but when there is summer camp going on you have to time your walks differently. Plus being one of the few girls on camp (a few were staff) I tried to limit my time by myself around camp. Some of those men who still are highly involved with the boy scouts at an old age just creep me out. Not all of them just a few. Sorry.

On a different note. Brycen's cough is starting to lighten up but Arianna's is getting worse. I'm going to continue to monitor her for one more day and if it seems like it is getting worse then I'll call the doctor tomorrow. I'm on day 5 of my medicine and am feeling alot better.

Yesterday I purchased a website domain and am slowly building my website for my auction service. I'll post it when it is completed. I figured it can't hurt anything to just try it out for a year and see if I get any business off of it. I'm not looking into anything full time. Just something to help pay for my license and to help keep my skills refined.

Today, I'm going to do a once over on the house. It just amazes me how much a house can fall apart even if you aren't here much over the weekend.

Friday!

Yay there is some sunshine today!!

We painted our living room last Sunday and the color is called Pollen Grains, which is a harvest yellow color. My living room just glows now. Such warmth! I love how much that color changed the appearance of the room that I am anxious to paint the dinning room. There is alot more work that needs to be done in that room though. We want to strip the paint off of the trim and the corner cupboard so I am going to try to be patient until the weather breaks.

Earlier in the week I did paint and patch holes in our bathroom while Josh was at work. I'm quite impressed with my handy work!

So far today I'm feeling alot better than yesterday. Two full days of meds in does a world of wonders! Brycen is still coughing so I'm religiously following up with his treatments so that we don't end up back at Childrens like we did in November. Brycen was at Children's due to pneumonia. Not fun at all! Arianna started coughing this morning so I started her with breathing treatments and just keeping an eye on her.

Fun times this weekend! Yeah! Hehehe. My father-in-law wants us all to visit him in Ohio. I really don't like going but I go anyways. He works and lives on a boy scout reservation in Northeast Ohio and the home they provided him to live at isn't the most comfortable place. Especially with kids! I'm just lucky that I talked Josh into just going for a day trip. The trip is roughly 2 hrs and I just wish that my FIL would understand that it is easier for him to visit us than for us to go to him. We have to literally pack the house to just visit. Well I shouldn't complain too much because he is actually seeing the kids once a month for the past few months. A huge improvement from the once every three months! The big kicker is that I want to see how the kids do throughout the night as well as myself. I don't want to travel over there if everyone is still not feeling so well. Plus my FIL always makes himself so busy while we are visiting and then he wants to visit when we have to leave. Oh well.

Happy Friday to all and have a safe weekend!