23-6-2008 - Crazy Busy (a long one)

My mood while writing this blog: exhausted

So, this has been an incredible week. Let's start with last Saturday (6/14).

6/14/08 Saturday- The hubby was asked to be best man at BIL's (brother in-law) wedding, and, as such, had to host a bachelor party. In an effort to sift through and clean out my grandfather's estate, we held a garage sale at his house. We have been told that he won't be coming home, so this is the second garage sale my parents have had trying to make some money to pay for hospice and also trying to empty the house. It is already sold (to BIL). The garage sale was a HUGE flop, so we donated all of it to Goodwill, then the boys went home to get cleaned up and go to the bachelor party.

While they were there, mom and I got cleaned up and went to lunch. Then we went to visit grandpa. He was having a rough day. Lots of pain in his side and even the morphine couldn't touch it. I guess he was fine the day before. Today there was blood in his urine, so the hospice nurse thinks he has a kidney/liver/urinary tract infection. Grandpa opts to start antibiotics, but believes that his body is shutting down and that this is the end. He was laying in bed shivering when we saw him. He was happy to see us, though. I gave him a hug and a kiss, we put his hand on my belly, and as we left I told him that I loved him and that Jason also sent his love.

6/15/08 Sunday - Father's day. We had planned a BBQ for Father's day and BIL & fiancee, MIL & FIL and mom & dad were all supposed to come. We get a phone call at 9am from mom & dad saying that they got called to hospice and weren't sure they'd make it to the BBQ. Then we got a call at 11 saying they wouldn't make it. Grandpa was really confused and agitated and would stop breathing for 15-30 seconds at a time, and they needed to be there with him.

We had our BBQ but it was sadly empty for me without my parents there. We didn't go see grandpa because I wanted to remember him the way I had seen him the day before. At this point we all knew he was nearing the end. And it seemed to come on so fast - he was FINE two days ago!

After everyone left, we got a call from mom asking if they could stop by. We told her we had leftovers and would heat them back up - they hadn't eaten yet. They came, snatched some food, told us what was going on, and then left to go home and shower.

I called every couple of hours for updates. He had slipped into a coma. Then he woke up asking what was going on. The nurse told him that he was dying. He was relieved. They had a priest come give him last rights. Then I got a call at 1:55am saying that he died at 1:50 in his sleep.

6/16/08 Monday - I get a phone call at 8:15 asking if I want to go to breakfast with my parents & uncle. I accept, so we meet at Village Inn and discuss what happened and what should/should not happen at his funeral. I find out that they have an appointment at the mortuary tomorrow to make arrangements. Then mom calls me later that afternoon to ask if I want to go, so I will know how it works. I accept because I figure she wants me there for support, but also because (and I assume she's thinking the same thing) soon enough someone else will die and it will be up to us (read: me) to take care of arrangements.

DH and I go shopping for dress clothes for the funeral.

6/17/08 Tuesday - I meet parents/uncles/mom's cousin and go to the mortuary. Grandpa already has a plot and headstone that he purchased when grandma died 14 years ago. We compose the obituary, we choose a casket and a tomb, we choose flowers, we bring clothes for him to be buried in, we choose a poem for the back of those little cards you get at funerals with the person's name on them. Then mom pays the $10,000 to have it all happen. Then we all go out to dinner.

6/18/08 Wednesday - The wake. The funeral home did a FABULOUS job with my grandpa. He looked so peaceful. It was beautiful. We all went out for dinner and drinks. As my uncle told the waitress, "The dead guy's paying!" It was irreverent and fun. Nothing like a good cry to make us all feel like partying LOL

6/19/08 Thursday - The funeral. It was long. It was hard to see him buried, and harder to throw the dirt on his casket. We all milled around my parents' house afterward and by this point we were all exhausted.

6/20/08 Friday - BIL's wedding rehearsal & dinner. It was *interesting* to say the least. I won't go into details, but we all had a feeling that it wouldn't be a perfect wedding...by any standards.

6/21/08 Saturday - BIL's actual wedding. I get a phone call around 9am from MIL asking if I knew anyone who would do hair and makeup on short notice. Turns out the bride's girl called in sick. Then the limo was late and the a/c in it didn't work, but they still charged for a full hour. Then the brother who was getting the cake, well his car broke down on the way to the hall. He had to call & borrow the bride's car to get the cake to the wedding. Then the cake was leaning because it was half melted. Then the bride's sister backed out of the wedding and didn't come to the rehearsal (even though her DH was supposed to be an usher), so he had no clue what he was doing and apparently didn't do it. Then nobody could find the pillow for the ring bearer, so he walked down the aisle with a ring box instead.

During the cermony there were half a dozen children running around screaming so we couldn't hear any of it. The a/c's in the reception hall weren't working properly, so there were 100 people in an 85 degree room. There was no DJ and no dancing, which is fine, except how do we get people to pour champagne for the toast? How do we let people know we're doing the garter/bouquet toss? What about the cake cutting? People left before all of this happened. It was too hot. Jason's speech went well, but nobody was paying attention. When they opened the sparkling cider bottles, they needed an actual bottle opener and there wasn't one.

The photographers had to leave before they even got pics of the car being tagged and I wound up taking pictures of them getting in and driving off. Did I mention that we've been having temps around 110 for a while now? I was overheating and melting fast. I started feeling like I was going to pass out. It was NOT a pleasant day.

6/22/08 Sunday - Our one and only day to get laundry/groceries/house cleaning done...and I had a baby shower to attend. We got up and got groceries, then came home and I got cleaned up and went to the shower (which was nice). While I was gone (for 3 hours) Jason cleaned house and did laundry. Then we had to go say goodbye to his aunt who flew in for the wedding, so after ther shower I came home, picked up Jason and the dogs and went to MIL's house. Stayed there for a couple hours and then went home and FINALLY got to relax.

6/23/08 Today - I am beat. Jason has a dentist appt this afternoon, which he's NOT looking forward to. My mom's birthday is Friday, but that's all taken care of. Jason's birthday is next Tuesday and that's NOT taken care of. At least not on my end. I need to get him something and FAST. I've got something in mind, but I need to get dad to order it (he gets good deals on car parts) soon...very soon. Like today probably. In fact, I'm off to get that taken care of.

Meanwhile, baby's moving around and doing fine. S/he's huge though! Bigger than my last one at this point. It's good to finally LOOK pregnant. All of our family that didn't know saw me at the wedding and had definitely figured it out. We are 2 days away from where we were last time. I am looking forward to experiencing weeks 18-40(ish) this time.