Life can sure be mundane sometimes. Then all of a sudden, BAM! The crazies come, and all chaos breaks loose! For example, June was a very boring month. We decided against getting a pool membership this year b/c the city raised the prices to cover both pools in town. Also a friend of ours told us the farmers almanac predicted a very rainy and cool summer. As a result, the thought of spending $235 for our family to go to the pool whenever was not for us this year. So for June we were pretty much home every day. We went to the park a couple of times, but mostly we stayed home.
Then July hits, and we were suddenly busy. We had the 4th celebrations, and spent some time with friends, and made plans to go visit my mom and sister in Oklahoma. My mom has been battling cancer for almost 18 months. She recently had decided to stop taking radiation and chemo b/c the cancer was spreading anyway, and she was just tired of fighting. She only had one full round of chemo, and she didn't like the way it made her feel. It made her so weak that it felt just as bad as the pain from the tumors. So, her chemo doctor set her up with hospice to manage her pain.
Anyway, our plan was to go and visit with her for a week, and spend some time with my sister and her kids. I get down to Oklahoma, and my sister said mom wasn't doing well. In fact, she told me that David wanted me to stay at least one night if not two nights with mom so he could get some sleep. Mom needed help getting up on her feet b/c her hip was so weak that she couldn't get out of bed or a chair. I told my sister that I could possibly do one night, although I was afraid I wouldn't be able to pick her up. The first day I went to visit mom, I had all six kids with me. I called to her house to see if she wanted me to pick anything up for her. She said milk. So on the way, I picked milk up for her. As I pulled into her driveway, lots of people were there talking with David.
As the kids and I got out, David came over and told me that mom had fallen. Hospice people were there and had decided to put in a catheter and a hospital bed. So, the kids and I stayed outside while the nurse helped mom, and then we went in to visit with her. She looked so bad. Eventually Pam and Mike both showed up at her house, and we all took care of her. Then Mike took all the kids back to their house and Pam and I stayed with mom till about 9. The hospital bed was delivered, and we got her all set up. The following days were stressful as we took care of her. By Sunday things seemed to have settled down again. Our aunt Nancy even came over to spend some time with mom. We went through pictures and just took care of her. She started to slowly go down hill. In fact, on Monday Pam went over and I stayed at her house with all the kids. She didn't eat or drink hardly anything, but the nurse told her she could have a better day the next day. However, it wasn't to be. At 3 am Tuesday morning, we got a phone call from David saying she was gone.
We were kind of all in shock. It wasn't till we saw her at the house that we realized she was indeed gone. When I saw her lying there, I had the intense desire to shake her and wake her up, but also knew she was not there anymore. The following Friday, we had her funeral and burial. It was good to celebrate her life, and peaceful knowing we'd see her again.
Now we're all home again and back to the normal nothingness of our day to day life. Eventually we'll start homeschooling, but we still haven't gotten any curriculum. So we'll wait for that first. Who knows what is in store for us? I wonder when our next bit of craziness will happen?????
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