This has been an odd summer. Sometimes I can't grasp all the things that have happened. I still forget at times.
Being the one in charge of everything has meant that I've had to assess every single item in my parents house. Even for someone with a pretty simple 'estate', it's still overwhelming.
I've mentioned pictures. There are many other items I'm having to integrate into our lives. From pillowcases (my mother used to embroider the cuffs of those years ago) to little trinkets and larger things like quilts. It's a lot to deal with.
But the weird thing is... I've been working so hard to find a way to bring all these things into my home and our lives. Still working on that to be honest. My wedding dress is in a huge box on the deep freeze and there is paperwork scattered all over the dining table.
It takes time.
But anyway... I ramble.. a lot.. these days. I haven't blogged much because I have a hard time putting together anything cohesive. Can you tell??? But that's ok, I guess. I've been struggling with the stuff. Not the items themselves, but just the fleeting nature of life. Some of these things are much older than I am. And then my parents had them and now I have them. And someday someone else will have them.
When it gets down to it, does it really matter? I will find places for all these things and they'll begin their life as 'mine'. Some things are in plain sight. Other things will be squirreled away in boxes somewhere. And then someday.... ?
It just brings me to realize all the more that stuff doesn't matter. It's just stuff. Yes, I'd be sad if some of my 'stuff' were to disappear or something, but when it's all said and done, we're all going to be separated from our stuff. I guess that's what I'm getting at. When it's over, it's not about what belongs to who or what items I get to live with.
But Who I belong to... and Who Lives in me.... and that is what determines eternity for me and all of us.
Not stuff.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
a nostalgic day
There wasn't much going on yesterday, so the girl and I decided to go shopping. But since I'm not a huge fan of "the mall" and all the stuff, we decided to check out an antique store I haven't been to in years.
What fun we had!
It was interesting for both of us. I saw water pitchers like the ones my great aunt used in her old-timey refrigerator. There are always those little insulators that used to be on light poles. Usually they're blue. More than one hoosier. I explained to Miss Boo that 'that' was the only counter top my grandmother had. It's hard to imagine all the delicious meals she prepared on that tiny counter space.
We saw an old washing machine. There is a place to attach the garden hose at the back. My grandparents used to have one of those. I remember when my mom was finally able to talk them into buying a new washer and dryer. They didn't think they needed a new one. I remember spending one week each summer at their house. I was so excited when they washed clothes while I visited. To me it was interesting and exciting. It took most of the day. And it was hard work. But ya know, they didn't mind doing it. As we stood there looking at that washer, it took me back to being a little girl and watching the clothes being pushed through the ringer and coming out flat. And then shaking them out to hang on the line. And then finally sprinkling them with water to iron them. Now we're all about wash and wear. I hardly ever drag out my ironing board at all. And spending two minutes loading and pushing start isn't really that hard.
When I'd spend a week with my grandparents, we did our work in the mornings and then played games in the afternoon. Sometimes we'd play dominoes and other times we'd play Flinch. It's a very old card game. I bought a new one a while back, but it didn't come with a little red rack that holds the five card hands at the ready. And just stacking them up criss-cross doesn't work very well for slick cards. I was excited yesterday when I saw a box of Flinch cards exactly like the one my grandmother had. I couldn't wait to open it to see if it included the little red rack. It did! So I bought that.
And Miss Boo and I spent the afternoon playing dominoes and Flinch.
And I spent the day taking a stroll through my past.
What fun we had!
It was interesting for both of us. I saw water pitchers like the ones my great aunt used in her old-timey refrigerator. There are always those little insulators that used to be on light poles. Usually they're blue. More than one hoosier. I explained to Miss Boo that 'that' was the only counter top my grandmother had. It's hard to imagine all the delicious meals she prepared on that tiny counter space.
We saw an old washing machine. There is a place to attach the garden hose at the back. My grandparents used to have one of those. I remember when my mom was finally able to talk them into buying a new washer and dryer. They didn't think they needed a new one. I remember spending one week each summer at their house. I was so excited when they washed clothes while I visited. To me it was interesting and exciting. It took most of the day. And it was hard work. But ya know, they didn't mind doing it. As we stood there looking at that washer, it took me back to being a little girl and watching the clothes being pushed through the ringer and coming out flat. And then shaking them out to hang on the line. And then finally sprinkling them with water to iron them. Now we're all about wash and wear. I hardly ever drag out my ironing board at all. And spending two minutes loading and pushing start isn't really that hard.
When I'd spend a week with my grandparents, we did our work in the mornings and then played games in the afternoon. Sometimes we'd play dominoes and other times we'd play Flinch. It's a very old card game. I bought a new one a while back, but it didn't come with a little red rack that holds the five card hands at the ready. And just stacking them up criss-cross doesn't work very well for slick cards. I was excited yesterday when I saw a box of Flinch cards exactly like the one my grandmother had. I couldn't wait to open it to see if it included the little red rack. It did! So I bought that.
And Miss Boo and I spent the afternoon playing dominoes and Flinch.
And I spent the day taking a stroll through my past.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Mimi and Pepaw at the fountain
We eat every weekend fairly often at a cute Mexican place. It's very nice... it's a sit down place and everything. You just have to go through the line first and get your number. They display your order number when it's ready on a jumbotron flat panel tv, which is an improvement over the staff barking out order numbers on a P.A. system... sometimes in English and sometimes in Spanish. It's a get your own stuff sort of place but you don't have to pick up after yourself when you're done. Throw in some oversized birds hanging from the ceilings and some pink and teal paint and you've got a pretty good idea. One thing about this place is they get the food up pretty fast, so we can be in at out in a half hour... or less. We looove that.
Well, anyway.. we were eating there over the weekend, as usual. The meal was very good. I got fajitas. They grill a jalapeno and it's one of the best things on the plate.
We got up and headed toward the door, with our usual stop at the soda fountain for the hubs to refill his orange soda. That's when things slowed down a little bit.
Mimi and Pepaw and their little granddaughter... we'll call her Suzie... were getting their drinks.
Oh. My. Word!
First off, you don't give a 3 year old a million choices. You could tell she was clearly having some trouble deciding. But fiiinally, she came up with a choice. Finally, we're getting somewhere.
Oh but wait, Suzie didn't want that after all. So Mimi dumps out the drink (!!!), but not the ice. She rinses the ice! Yes, you heard me.. she rinses it.. she doesn't dump it, because that would be faster and all that, she rinses it. At this point, my little party of three is starting to get a little annoyed at the wait, but we're doing ok.
And then little Suzie gets to make another choice. Fiiiiinally they were both happy with their choice and move on. My husband and I had been waiting patiently for this whole deal to play out and thought we were fiiiiinally moving up in the line.
But nope, we've got to wait on Pepaw now! You would think that with all the waiting and watching he did while his lovely bride of a million years and the little grandbaby chose and re-chose, he would have been choosing his own drink in his head. Like a hundred times over.
But oh-no, that would have been too easy. Now it's his turn and he's got to stand there and figure out what HE wanted to drink. By this time, my husband and I are watching this whole little thing play out in front of us and we're being patient, but golly gee. So every now and then I touch my husband's back, just to let him know I'm here and I know what you're thinking. We were both afraid to look at each other in the eye at that point!
OK.. I know this is chasing a bit of a rabbit here, but to me, this is sort of like in the old days when evvverybody wrote checks at Walmart to pay and the lady stands in line and waits until after HER groceries are completely rung up and bagged to write out the WHOLE check. She could have written it all out except for the amount when she was waiting for the employees to do their jobs and it would have saved the patrons behind her a little time, but that would have been the nice thing to do and of course, too easy. So she waits to the bitter end to do any of it.
This is kind of how I felt about Pepaw at the fountain. He could have thought this whole thing out ahead of time. But he didn't. So we waited and waited. Hurray.. he finally made his move and got his drink.
And then stood in front of the fountain to drank some of it before walking away. My patient hubby got his drink refilled and we got out of there.
But not before giving the Miss America wave to all the people standing in line behind us as we walked away.
Well, anyway.. we were eating there over the weekend, as usual. The meal was very good. I got fajitas. They grill a jalapeno and it's one of the best things on the plate.
We got up and headed toward the door, with our usual stop at the soda fountain for the hubs to refill his orange soda. That's when things slowed down a little bit.
Mimi and Pepaw and their little granddaughter... we'll call her Suzie... were getting their drinks.
Oh. My. Word!
First off, you don't give a 3 year old a million choices. You could tell she was clearly having some trouble deciding. But fiiinally, she came up with a choice. Finally, we're getting somewhere.
Oh but wait, Suzie didn't want that after all. So Mimi dumps out the drink (!!!), but not the ice. She rinses the ice! Yes, you heard me.. she rinses it.. she doesn't dump it, because that would be faster and all that, she rinses it. At this point, my little party of three is starting to get a little annoyed at the wait, but we're doing ok.
And then little Suzie gets to make another choice. Fiiiiinally they were both happy with their choice and move on. My husband and I had been waiting patiently for this whole deal to play out and thought we were fiiiiinally moving up in the line.
But nope, we've got to wait on Pepaw now! You would think that with all the waiting and watching he did while his lovely bride of a million years and the little grandbaby chose and re-chose, he would have been choosing his own drink in his head. Like a hundred times over.
But oh-no, that would have been too easy. Now it's his turn and he's got to stand there and figure out what HE wanted to drink. By this time, my husband and I are watching this whole little thing play out in front of us and we're being patient, but golly gee. So every now and then I touch my husband's back, just to let him know I'm here and I know what you're thinking. We were both afraid to look at each other in the eye at that point!
OK.. I know this is chasing a bit of a rabbit here, but to me, this is sort of like in the old days when evvverybody wrote checks at Walmart to pay and the lady stands in line and waits until after HER groceries are completely rung up and bagged to write out the WHOLE check. She could have written it all out except for the amount when she was waiting for the employees to do their jobs and it would have saved the patrons behind her a little time, but that would have been the nice thing to do and of course, too easy. So she waits to the bitter end to do any of it.
This is kind of how I felt about Pepaw at the fountain. He could have thought this whole thing out ahead of time. But he didn't. So we waited and waited. Hurray.. he finally made his move and got his drink.
And then stood in front of the fountain to drank some of it before walking away. My patient hubby got his drink refilled and we got out of there.
But not before giving the Miss America wave to all the people standing in line behind us as we walked away.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
closing out and integrating
I guess you could call this post a little of this and a little of that.
Because that's what you're going to get!
Since before we went on vacation, life has been a whirlwind of activity. And then within days of returning from vacation, my dad went into the hospital and died a few days later.
So yeah... life has been overwhelming.
I also ended up in a time of physical and mental exhaustion. I had made so many decisions in such a short amount of time. Very difficult time. And then pushing my body physically day in and day out to get everything done for my dad while he was alive and then for him after he died.
And then after. I guess that's where I am now. The aftermath.
His house has been sorted through and pretty much closed out, which was a huge job. But it felt so good to be finished with that.
And then there were the pictures. Hundreds of pictures. That's what I'm working on now. They've been sorted and I have a stack of old black and whites to have reproductions made of. I have a box of very old pictures and I'm sure no one will know who those people are. Many were classmates of one of my parents, but there are a few of family too. Sigh.
For about two weeks the stuff was all over my living room and we could barely walk through it. I was turning into a nervous wreck because of it. So I moved the last of the boxes to the entryway until I can get it all dealt with. I've never been so happy to vacuum in my whole life!
Note to the family historians: WRITE ON THE BACKS OF THE PHOTOS SO LATER GENERATIONS WILL KNOW WHO THESE PEOPLE ARE/WHERE THIS PHOTO WAS TAKEN. That is all.
I also brought home a lot of glassware. I'm working on finding places to keep all of that.
And cleaning out my closet to make room for everything I'm trying to integrate into our lives.
Whew. I'm tired.
Because that's what you're going to get!
Since before we went on vacation, life has been a whirlwind of activity. And then within days of returning from vacation, my dad went into the hospital and died a few days later.
So yeah... life has been overwhelming.
I also ended up in a time of physical and mental exhaustion. I had made so many decisions in such a short amount of time. Very difficult time. And then pushing my body physically day in and day out to get everything done for my dad while he was alive and then for him after he died.
And then after. I guess that's where I am now. The aftermath.
His house has been sorted through and pretty much closed out, which was a huge job. But it felt so good to be finished with that.
And then there were the pictures. Hundreds of pictures. That's what I'm working on now. They've been sorted and I have a stack of old black and whites to have reproductions made of. I have a box of very old pictures and I'm sure no one will know who those people are. Many were classmates of one of my parents, but there are a few of family too. Sigh.
For about two weeks the stuff was all over my living room and we could barely walk through it. I was turning into a nervous wreck because of it. So I moved the last of the boxes to the entryway until I can get it all dealt with. I've never been so happy to vacuum in my whole life!
Note to the family historians: WRITE ON THE BACKS OF THE PHOTOS SO LATER GENERATIONS WILL KNOW WHO THESE PEOPLE ARE/WHERE THIS PHOTO WAS TAKEN. That is all.
I also brought home a lot of glassware. I'm working on finding places to keep all of that.
And cleaning out my closet to make room for everything I'm trying to integrate into our lives.
Whew. I'm tired.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
a DAYcation
We decided late Thursday to take a little DAYcation. So I threw some stuff in a suitcase, called a friend to feed the kitty for me Friday morning and we ran out the door... to Austin, Texas!
I'll resist the urge to sing The stars at night are big and bright, deep in the heart of Texas.... You're welcome! : )
I'll resist the urge to sing The stars at night are big and bright, deep in the heart of Texas.... You're welcome! : )
We didn't have huge plans. We had been interested in showing the capitol to Miss Boo. She saw it when she was 7, but that was a long time ago, and she didn't even remember it at all. There is so much history in the capitol; it's always fascinating to go there. We enjoyed looking up into the rotunda to see what looked like a tiny star.. that is actually 8 feet in diameter. Amazing.
As you can see, it was a beautiful morning. We did the capitol first, since we had to walk for a bit OUTSIDE. It was supposed to be a scorcher. And it was!
As you can see, it was a beautiful morning. We did the capitol first, since we had to walk for a bit OUTSIDE. It was supposed to be a scorcher. And it was!
We also went to the Bub Bullock Texas State History Museum. I'd heard how wonderful and informative it was, so we decided to go see it. I shot this pic of the star out front as we walked in from the side. This was one of the most interesting museums on Texas history I've ever been to. There was a temporary exhibit on immigration through Galveston Island which was fascinating. Very interesting. This is a must see for Texans. Very well done!Makes me want to come home and plant bluebonnets and maybe redo a room in Americana.
So there ya go... our 23 hour and 45 minute DAYcation!
Happy Independence Day, y'all!
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
still here
Hi. It's me. I'm still here. : )
I've been so tired since all of this happened. But I'm beginning to get rested up, so that's good.
I'm the one designated to do all the necessary ending paperwork etc. That's always a 'fun' experience. So that's ongoing.
I finished all the thank you notes this morning and dropped those off at the post office. Woo hoo! I like being able to thank people personally. So many people helped in so many ways. Not just sending flowers. So it's been fun remembering.
*********
Hoping to hop back on here soon and revisit our DC trip with more pics. Last weekend I went away for a bit for a girls weekend sort of thing. I messed with my DC pics a little bit and got some fun ideas for doing my Disney pics. It was nice to leave the paperwork here at home and head out, even if it was only for a day and a half. : )
I've been so tired since all of this happened. But I'm beginning to get rested up, so that's good.
I'm the one designated to do all the necessary ending paperwork etc. That's always a 'fun' experience. So that's ongoing.
I finished all the thank you notes this morning and dropped those off at the post office. Woo hoo! I like being able to thank people personally. So many people helped in so many ways. Not just sending flowers. So it's been fun remembering.
*********
Hoping to hop back on here soon and revisit our DC trip with more pics. Last weekend I went away for a bit for a girls weekend sort of thing. I messed with my DC pics a little bit and got some fun ideas for doing my Disney pics. It was nice to leave the paperwork here at home and head out, even if it was only for a day and a half. : )
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