In-between 8 trips to Houston, and flights to Washington D.C., Wisconsin and Newark over the last three months, life and death happened. It has been a blur. Here are some highlights and lowlights (with hopes these pictures will help me to remember it all):
October:
~ Visited my sister in Marshfield,WI and enjoyed some beautiful Fall colors and crisp air.
~ My in-laws, Jim and Sheryl were in-town for a week over Ian's Fall break from school. As usual, we enjoyed lots of great meals, glasses of wine and cups of coffee.
~ Ian and I participated in the 42nd Annual Lincoln Family Downtown YMCA 5k. I don't have any pictures to prove that I actually finished the run...but I did! It felt great to complete a goal that I set for myself and I had a blast running with my hubby. Next hurdle: PF Changs 1/2 marathon in January. Yikes--I guess I'd better hit the pavement again to prepare for 13 miles!
~ This Halloween Ava was Rupunzel and her daddy was some scary looking Grim Reaper.
November:
~ Ian and I had a fun double-date night out with out friends, Amy and Kyle. We went to the Arizona Wine Growers Festival at The Farm.
~ Went to an ASU Football game.
~ Attended Ava's first Kindergarten parent/teacher conference, and she's doing great!
~ Ian chaperoned Ava's school fieldtrip to the Phoenix World Wildlife Zoo. (apparently, Ava's lips are blue from eating a blueberry snowcone).
~ My aunt Bethy (my dad's youngest sister) died at the age of 57. She struggled her whole life with addiction and her little body just finally gave in. I believe we all battle a demon or two, some of us just aren't strong enough to win every time. May she find some much needed peace in heaven.
~ I attended the funeral for my friend from Jr. High and High School, First Class Army Sergeant, Todd Harris in Tucson. 37 years old, killed in Afghanistan on Nov. 3rd. It was surreal and so terribly heartbreaking.
~ Attended Ava's class Thanksgiving lunch.
~ Hosted my 2nd Annual Thanksgiving Day lunch/dinner with my family.
~ Celebrated my 36th birthday with a lovely dinner at Flemings with my handsome husband and made him take me to see the movie "Love and Other Drugs", so I could drool over Jake Gyllenhaal. =)
~ Then this past Sunday, Dec. 5th at 8:30 pm, my Grandma Pat (my dad's mom) died in a nursing home in Tucson, just after my parents and aunt Margo left her bedside after saying their goodbyes. Funeral will most likely be this coming Saturday in Tucson. My heart aches for the losses my Dad has had to endure in just one month. I will miss my Grandma, but she was such a woman of great pride, and being in a nursing home was torture for her. The angels in heaven will welcome her beauty and grace I'm sure.
And even though I would at times, like to stop the hands of time, or at least make them slow down for a little while, I know this is how life and death happen. It all spins around me...and I sit here trying to make sense of it all. And I think the toughest part is trying to still make "life" special for Ava, especially this time of year...when life is supposed to be MAGICAL.
I don't know if life is "magical" for me anymore...I find it most cruel. And yet somehow, some way, I still manage to find the beauty, the joy in very simple experiences. Maybe that's the best lesson I can pass along to Ava. You can't let the darkness cloud your view of the stars.
The lights are up on the house, Christmas cards are in the mail to our loved ones, presents purchased, and flights are booked to Memphis for the Christmas holiday.
And so it goes...life, that is.
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