family is everything

catch the moment: wk 27

Posted on by mommyinthemidwest

Last week’s post ended in a rather sad way, with me sharing that my aunt had passed away and we that were preparing for her funeral.

183/365: Thursday, July 2nd. Getting through the day at work on Wednesday was difficult as my mind was anywhere but on my job duties. I spent Thursday with my mother and grandmother, remembering my Aunt Sandy and other relatives we’d lost. I had not yet seen my grandfather’s grave so we visited the cemetery where so many family members I never met are buried. It was some much needed, rare, and very therapeutic family time. I learned that my grandpa’s brother had died after getting hit by a train at age 22. How have I lived 35 years and never heard that story? It’s strange, walking through a cemetery. You can literally feel pain there. Every stone, every name represents so many stories and such sorrow. With my already sad mood, it was a somber experience that wasn’t taken lightly.07-02-2015

184/365: Friday, July 3rd. Just before the viewing and funeral. None of us wanted to go in there, but we did. It was a beautiful tribute to a beautiful person.  We stayed the night at a hotel since the burial was early the next morning.07-03-2015

185/365: Saturday, July 4th. After the burial, we ate lunch with family and then headed an hour and a half or so west back to my house. My sister and her family came to stay with us Saturday night. We grilled out, walked to the park, and later stood in the driveway watching the neighbors shooting off fireworks from side. I love watching fireworks, but it shocks me how much people spend on them. Oh well – we appreciated the show!07-04-2015 186/365: Sunday, July 5th. Since my family ended up in Indiana instead of us being in TN for the 4th like we’d planned, we tried to make the most of it. We got the inflatable water slide out on Sunday. The kids had a blast. I couldn’t have kept count of how many times my nephew Malachi went down if I wanted to. I love having my family here. I love them being in my house. I love cooking for them. I hate that we live 6 hours apart. Oh, this day was also our 12th wedding anniversary! See day 187…07-05-2015

187/365: Monday, July 6th. Ryan had told me Sunday that his parents were coming up Monday night so that we could go out for a nice dinner. I was so excited! We don’t get many date nights so they really are special times that I look forward to when we are able to talk and reconnect without distractions. I was so thankful for the surprise and for my in-laws agreeing to come up and watch the boys for a few hours. After dinner we went to a couple of furniture stores and the mall.07-06-2015

188/365: Tuesday, July 7th. Seeing this beautiful old house turned schoolhouse when I drop off and pick up the boys at summer camp never gets old. Still decked out for the 4th of July. 07-07-2015

189/365: Wednesday, July 8th. Typical array of toys strewn through the house while big imaginations are running wild with make-believe play.07-08-2015My mood has definitely improved again as the week has gone on, despite having a constant ache in my heart for my uncle and my cousins who lost their wife/mom last week. Grief is such a hard journey that we all go through at some point but I’d never wish on anyone.

Which photo is your favorite this week? They are all special to me.

xo,

~C~

Linking up with Mindi,Stephanie, and Carrie for week 27 of Catch the Moment 365.

catch the moment: wk 26|halfway point

Gallery posted on by mommyinthemidwest

It’s official – 2015 is halfway over. Hard to believe.

This week has, if I’m being honest, sucked. It’s had some positive moments that you will see below but for the most part, it’s been stressful and sad. I lost my Aunt Sandy to cancer. She had been receiving treatments for a few months but suddenly took a turn for the worst and passed away Tuesday. Additionally, Dexter has a new skin rash. He is on a strong antibiotic that isn’t working, which tells me he probably shouldn’t be on it. But here it is, the holiday weekend, and I feel stuck. I want to stop giving it to him but don’t want to compromise his healing if it is actually doing something. I’m frustrated with Dexter’s skin for giving him so much trouble. I’m frustrated with doctors for not trying harder to figure out what’s going on. I’m tired of worrying about him all the time. I was able to spend the day with my mom and grandma today, which was greatly needed and appreciated. This weekend will be hard as we say our final goodbyes to Aunt Sandy. Death is never easy, but this solemn reminder of how short life is has hit me hard. I shared some of our visits with her and her alpacas in previous posts like THIS ONE.

Linking up with Mindi,Stephanie, and Carrie for week 26 of Catch the Moment 365.

176/365: Thursday, June 25th. Ryan’s beard sure was getting long. And I didn’t love it. So scratchy. The boys didn’t seem to mind.06-25-2015

177/365: Friday, June 26th. All that growing out for this….he agreed to do this along with another Tough Mudder teammate of his. He completed the course the next day and shaved his face on Sunday! Win – win. This is his “you’re not gonna put this on your blog, are you?” face. YEP!06-26-2015

178/365: Saturday, June 27th. We went to this little cutie’s 2nd birthday party while daddy was in Kentucky getting all muddy. I’ll take treats and sparkles over getting electrocuted (on purpose…what?) any day. 06-27-2015

179/365: Sunday, June 28th. We’d had nothing but rain, rain, rain for what felt like all summer but the sun finally came out and Sunday was a perfect day to take the boys to a baseball game with some friends. 06-28-2015

180/365: Monday, June 29th. Dexter at the doctor after I picked him up from camp and noticed the new rash on his arms and legs.06-29-2015

181/365: Tuesday, June 30th. After receiving the news that my aunt had taken her final breaths, I just wanted to be alone. I’d felt irritable and sad all week and needed some time to walk and think and just be. 06-30-2015

182/365: Wednesday, July 1st. The buddies whispering about the Lego creations they dream of building while looking through a Lego ideas book they picked out at the library. These two. 07-01-2015I hope you have a good 4th.

xo,

~C~

 

 

#mcdanfamloveswdw: Days 9 & 10 – The End

Posted on by mommyinthemidwest

In case you missed it:

Day 8 – Dexter’s birthday at Walt Disney World. Click back through previous posts to see the ones before that.

Day 9: May 14th, 2015.

We decided that there were enough things that we missed at Hollywood Studios to go back for most of our last day. That’s when it hit me that I really wasn’t going to get a family photo in front of Cinderella Castle this trip and for some reason that made me sad. Not sad enough to use up our entire last day’s pass on it (we didn’t get park-hoppers this time) though, so off we went to Hollywood Studios.

Back to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground – one of their favorites.001 002

More pennies…more souvenirs.003 - Copy

One of my favorite stage shows at WDW – Beauty and the Beast.006 008

We ate at Starring Rolls for lunch – I never realized that they had mouthwatering gourmet deli sandwiches. The cupcakes and treats I knew about. We had to check there one last time for a Star Wars cupcake for Dex. No luck, but we decided to treat ourselves to dessert anyway. Calories don’t count at Disney!010 011 013 015

More Star Tours…016

More watching the Jedi Training Academy participants. This was about the time we realized that both of our kids actually WERE old enough to do this. My nephew Spencer did it last time and for some reason I had it in my head that the child had to be 6 or 8 – then we see these tiny little guys and girls up there fighting Vader. I felt sick to my stomach with regret for not checking into this sooner – my boys would have absolutely LOVED to do this. Mommy dropped the ball. 018 019 020

Slushy Man.021

We were slowly making our way back to the front of the park – really in no hurry at all as we knew we wouldn’t be back here for at least two years. We stopped to watch the Streetmosphere performers. The boys were actually a lot more interested and amused by the slapstick comedy routine that what I would have expected. 022 023

Time to go.024Ryan took the boys to the pool for one last swim while I attempted to figure out how to condense the explosion that was our room back into a few, suddenly very small looking suitcases. I did the best I could and we called it a night.

Day 10: Friday, May 15th. Getting out the door and down to the bus stop by 7am was quite the mad scramble so pictures were not a priority. Once we got settled at our departure gate, the boys had some time to play.

Dreaded Transportation Notice. Evicted.001 002I zoned out on the flight home and as soon as we got back, we were in a rush to get unpacked and the house put back together somewhat – my mom and grandma were in town and coming over for dinner! Having something to look forward to when we got home made the depression of leaving Disney a little less intense. We haven’t stopped talking about every detail of our trip. Every day a different story or moment is mentioned, at least in passing. I can’t believe we’ve been home for a whole month! BUT, hey – I’m pretty proud of myself for finishing these many, many recap posts and getting through all my pictures in 29 days. That’s an accomplishment to feel good about with how busy this past month has been. I can now resume my once a week posts.  🙂

For tips and other specific planning information, please visit me over at The Affordable Mouse. I post in a series called “Disney with Little Ones” every other Monday.

xo,

~C~