Pausing on a rainy sleety day

First off, I am totally excited that my Granddaughter Ariel will be coming to spend next Friday with us. She'll stay over night.

She turns 19 next Friday. Where on earth did all those years go???

Here are some photos from years past. 

Ariel brought so much into our lives over the years. Her folks used to come often to visit and would drop her off at our house while they stayed the weekend at my Mother in Law's large house.

Ariel wanted to be like Grandma Val with a 
backpack and camera...

Dancing with Grandpa Rich in the yard.

Helping Great Grandma Lenise

Helping Grandpa with chores

Riding Badger

Ariel let me know last month that she was planning on driving up her new to her car that she bought on her own to visit us. She'd been wanting to do a solo trip on her own for a while.

She is no longer a child but a grown up. She is working on getting her own apartment and place to live which is not easy right now. 

Secretly, I'd love it if she moved near us and worked at one of the nicest places around "Go Macro".  I doubt that will happen but I could wish it.

I'm not her 'blood' grandma, but I sure do love her.

I always have enjoyed our time spent together. She is a quiet person with a great imagination and is very intense in her sense of responsibilities.

I am looking forward to her visit as is Grandpa.

It feels odd

I really didn't expect that my MIL's passing would affect me as it did. 

I mean I'd been masked up, gowned, and confined to her room for three days watching her sleep and struggle for breath as her body started to shut down its systems.

She gurgled and made odd noises. Sunday she did speak a few different sounds.

"I'm tired." 

It did though. I haven't felt like doing much for the past couple of days. I did take Siera for an evening ride in the woods which seemed to help me focus again. Maybe it is relief  that she isn't in pain and sadness that I will miss her, but I have been mourning her for a long while. Harder when the only way I could see her again was so I could sit with her in her final hours.

Today, the 4th of July we will have a small graveside service on a HOT and blazing humid day.

The funeral had been paid for ahead of time and MIL did save our butts by picking out the casket. She had put her daughter in charge of the visitation and her son in law in charge of providing the service.

I won't go into it further but Covid-19 was not the only reason this didn't happen.

Lenise's grand daughter, Rich's daughter, was invaluable for helping with the small details. She helped with the Obit. 

I will digress here. We had so many laughs and wonderful memories putting this together. Discussed Fireworks! What could go wrong! Said the Mark [the funeral director].

He said the strangest obit he ever wrote was "Jane Doe, born on insert date, died on insert date.

Jane Doe loved Cats and Jesus.

Stephanie knew what flowers Lenise adored the most. We decided to be prudent and offer a short graveside service and hired a pastor for that too.

A few of Lenise's friends will come. It will be unbearably hot, humid, and sticky. But it will be outside and people can be socially distanced.

My son Jer showed up last night with his two children to pay his respects. 

The kids were so well behaved and didn't even complain about my cooking. Yeah, I didn't exactly have kid friendly stuff in the house.

However. What can I say? Those kids put on masks and wore them while playing on the porch.

We did sit together for a few minutes on the porch.

We may have looked like hooligans but we were being very careful. Charlie was in 7th heaven.

The kids are staying at a "No Tell" Motel in town and will be back this morning for breakfast. I can make cinnamon rolls by Pillsbury I think without screwing it up to badly.

This morning's sunrise was stunning. I didn't get out to the ridge to stand on the rise and watch it...

but...

...but there it is..