Grace

Last week my grandma finished passing from this life to the next. The last several years of her life have been a struggle for her and for those who loved her. My Mom was going to fly to San Francisco alone which didn't seem right so I decided to go with her.



It was actually a good time with my Mom. Frisco is her old stomping ground and it's strange to be in this very different city and culture and have my Mom point out places from her childhood. One of those places was her highschool. Only two stories and several thousand square feet larger than my old highschool. She said she's never been in the cafeteria.



She did, however, spend a lot of time in those bleachers.

The funeral was on Saturday and it was good. The biggest struggle was the strange clash of family. My Grandma was divorced young and married my grandpa Larry who already had three kids. They combined families in a small house off Geneva. Seven kids total. I've never known Grandpa's kids.



The other hard part of the funeral was Uncle Loyd. Uncle Loyd is my Mom's brother who was born mentally retarded. He's 58 but he has the mind of an 8 year old. No one really knew how he would respond to the death of his mother. The previous night he was convinced that everyone was there for his birthday, which was in August. It didn't hit him until he walked into the church and saw his Mom's face on the program.



The convergence of family also meant an update of some off the cuff family photos.





I know those looks! They're all saying to themselves,"Are any of these pictures worth blogging?"




Maybe a little too much commotion for Uncle Loyd.



Ok, one last thing, (phew my blogs are getting longer and longer). My grandma was into collecting. She collected teapots, thimbles, antique furniture, and owls. Her entire house was under the theme of owls. I have next to no memories of Grandma, but I remember the owls. So before my flight left I had to wander around and capture some of my favorite owls in the house.









On Sunday we made sandwiches and sat around the table. I made a sandwich for Loyd which he seemed to enjoy. His mind processes things at it's own time in it's own way and it was interesting to watch him. I asked him if his sandwich was any good. He answered, "I'm glad you could come pay your respects to my Mom."

Grace was not always a happy person, but as my Mom said, she's happy now. She's with her Saviour.

Bowling Buddies

Instead of our usual Thursday night intellectualizing a bunch of us Eastsiders decided to brave some new territory at Kenmore Lanes and engage in a little friendly competition. Funny, I never realized how competative a bunch of boys who spend most of their time in a cube farm could be. Actually, I guess I had some idea when I think back to their last croquet match....bowling and croquet.....hmmm........just for the record the guys have been bungee jumping.



Heidi and Aaron (some of Royden's workmates) also made it out to show off their bowling skills. Nice form Aaron!



Here's a little Adam montage for you-I've entitled it "Adam in Action". I believe he had the winning score of the evening.







Sadly we girls did not fare so well score wise...not that I even played:) but we did have fun. Better enjoy that victory dance Lautenbach-lucky for you Mrs. Millhouze was not in the house that night-'cause if she had been...she'd a smoked you all!

The Fruits of Labour

When Royden's away Ruth is at play...well...not quite. So Royden was away in California this past weekend and I was wondering how on earth I was going to spend two whole days without him. We haven't been apart much in the last three years...and last time he went away my dad came down to keep me company. This time I was on my own. Reading? Shopping? Hmmm what to do what to do? After my nice relaxing massage on Saturday I decided that it was high time to repaint the guest room. So I did. Ceiling and all. NOW I need a massage! I also managed to put a small hole in the wall while doing some detective work that now needs to be patched. There was this protruding circle in the wall and I just had to know what was making this defect. It was driving me crazy. So like a zit I picked it, and now there's a hole. Unlike skin drywall doesn't heal up after leaving it alone for a week. So then I made a patch. My patch still needs some work but I'm actually feeling pretty good about myself. Here's some pictures (minus one of the patchjob:)).

Before (during our home inspection the guest room was actually a very cute girl's room)


After



As you can see it is begging for guests...so some of you had better hurry up and come visit us!