Our Forever Family

David has been in the Philippines since the 9th, 11 days and counting. I would have to say that I am "in the thick of it." Luckily I have stayed busy. I got home from the funeral on the 13th and have been busy ever since. Tuesday I bought groceries for the SEP dinners at school. Wednesday and Thursday I fed the teachers during their break from school and parent teacher conference. Wednesday was an easy dinner. Texas Roadhouse provided the meat and buns for pulled pork sandwiches. Veggie tray for the side and I made lemon bars and dream bars for dessert. Thursday night was a little more involved. Potato bar with all the fixings, 2 different salads and brownies that I made. Then I also had to take the kids to parent teacher conferences that day. It's funny how timing works out! David was gone the last time I did this in the fall! It felt like dejavu all over again!! I debated whether or not to get a babysitter for Friday night or Saturday night. I decided to...

Melanie turned 7 on the 7th! Ha! I just realized typing that it was her golden birthday! Her birthday fell on a Monday, so Saturday I took her out for some shopping and lunch! It was a lot of fun just her and I. She FINALLY got to go to Build-a-Bear and she made herself a puppy. I was going to bring along the camera but forgot! Then we went to Children's Place and she picked out a new outfit to wear on her birthday to school. She wanted to eat in the mall and so she went to Hot Dog on a Stick. It was a fun afternoon! Monday she celebrated with friends! She is lucky to have such great friends surround her! I LOVE to have Melanie in our home! She is constantly wanting to do things and likes to be busy. She has grown up so much and I can already see signs of teenager SCREAMING sometimes! We love her to death and our home would not be complete with out her in it!

For some reason I have put off blogging about Grandma’s funeral. Oh how I will miss her! When I got to my parents house they had the life sketch of Grandma and Grandpa McGary out on the table. My dad gave the eulogy at the funeral and had read it to get his information. It was done in 1980, so it was their life up to that point. I read it Wednesday and finished it Thursday night. It was so fun to read and had a lot of things in there that I didn't know about. This was the hardest part. Watching my dad with his brothers and sister’s saying their last goodbyes before they closed the casket to their mother. And then one final kiss from Grandpa. I think it is the hardest for the one left behind. The whole program was AMAZING! Grandpa said it was the best funeral he had ever been to. I was happy he thought that! It really was a great tribute to Grandma and the life she led. After the grave side, I went and picked up Jenna and Alyssa who stayed with Stephanie Ga...

I thought I had a lot more pictures of Grandma.  Sad I don’t.  Either we didn’t use the camera much or because she lived so close it wasn’t a big deal to pull out the camera??  I wanted to write down the things I remember doing with Grandma growing up. Grandma always *was the life of the party. *made homemade ice cream every Sunday night.  I remember many times playing no bears out tonight at their house.  She always brought her family together! *came to our school performances. *was loud!  I will never forget “DON!” *wanted to know the latest in our life.  She was always in on the “know”.  When David and I were dating she would refer to him as “that boy”. Grandma was: *my bus driver.  I guess she was pretty much everyone’s bus driver.  She always handed out candy.  I remember when she used to park her bus in her drive way, get out and go in her house to get more candy! *my grandma that lived just down the road.  We a...