Ok, so I'm waiting for...

the housing inspector to come, so thought I would keep myself occupied... before heading out to Apple Valley for the weekend....

Things are just OK; like I said, I'm gonna be gone for the weekend, so it'll be a nice break from taking care of Dad, and not to think about things so much.. in the post from Oct 2, I had said that the day that Mom died is also my cousin's birthday and that'll be forever hard on him, b/c he's her Godson... well, after thinking about it for a long time, I got to thinking how much he must feel that that is one of the greatest gifts that God and Mom could ever have given him...to have her be taken back home on her Godson's birthday; He must have known how much she loved Kevin and vice versa. Occasionally, I still get the feeling that we'll lose contact with my mom's family, but it's lessening now, that our cousins send beautiful and encouraging (and sometimes funny) forwards through email. If there's a family reunion this summer back there, we're all (four of us for sure, and maybe 11) planning on going.

I'm not looking forward to the holidays, obviously. But, I know that Mom wouldn't want us to be sad and to forge forward. There is going to be a HUGE hole though. For Christmas, we're gonna have our annual party from my dad's side of the family. And then I'm gonna be going to a cousin's on my mom's side of the family a week after our party and join their family party. The actual day...... I'll have to get back to you on...