Thanks and V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N

First off, I wanted to say thank you to all of you who expressed your sympathies both here, and on Twitter. It meant a lot to me. I was thoroughly blessed by you all, and so glad to know that people care.

Funerals are hard. Everyone knows that. But my family and I were blessed in a lot of ways as well. Churches contributed food, stopped by the funeral home, and called to check on us. I was able to spend time with some of my cousins, one of whom I hadn't seen in 12 years. And, I was reminded how much people really care.

One thing I know for sure....funerals are for the living. They help with closure. They help with support during a difficult time.

A small funny from the funeral: for as long as I can remember, my grandmother has been terrified of storms. She would faithfully go to the local storm shelter every time it was open, until she was no longer well enough to take herself. Tornadoes terrified her. Ironically, the funeral home is across the street from the tornado siren tower here in town. And it was stormy the day of the funeral. Right in the middle of the service, the sirens went off.

And for once, my grandmother had no need or reason to be scared.



Onto happier topics. I am leaving tomorrow at noon to head to the DC area and then to NYC over the weekend. I am very much looking forward to spending time with friends and am going to have the wonderful chance to meet with some fellow bloggers in both areas. Allison was kind enough to organize a get together and she and I are going to go see Next to Normal while I'm there. I'm so excited I want to jump around like a 4 year old. :)

There are going to be a host of other bloggers there. I will be giving a full report when I get back home. :) Expect several different posts.

I will also be attending an Orioles game, seeing Rent in D.C. on my birthday, and hanging out with one of my best friends and my godson (who I think is the cutest baby on the planet).
And, being the last person on the planet without an iPhone, I will not have internet access for 7 days. If I do, it will be bumming from someone's computer. :)

I will be getting back into Tennessee late on the 27th. Expect any comment moderation to be done after that. And, expect lots and lots of pictures. :)

Just a quick update....

I wanted to let you guys know I'll be semi-absent this week. My grandmother passes away last night. She's so much better off now. I'm happy for her, but sad for us.
I'll do my best to check in when I can.

Life and Death

It seems like life and death are all around me right now. And, surprisingly, they both make me want to cry.

Several of my close friends have just had or are having babies.

At 27, my heart aches for a baby of my own.

My grandmother is very ill right now.

The nurses and doctors aren't giving her much time left.

My heart aches for her pain.

It seems like life and death are all around me right now. And, surprisingly, they both make me rejoice.

My friends, who let me share in their job of new life.

Holding tiny people, touching tiny hands and feet.

My heart leaps with the blessings.

My grandmother stands on the cusp of New Life.

A new body.

And the chance to see our Savior face to face.

My heart leaps with joy for her blessing and the thought of no more pain and the chance to eternally praise God the Father and our Risen Savior.

It seems like life and death are all around me right now, leaving me with a myriad of emotions and thoughts.

Life begins and life ends.

Love is always there.

May Showers??

As has been for most of the country, it has been raining or rainy here for the past two weeks. Today we actually had some sun! And it was nice. But I had been wondering whatever happened to the whole April Showers bring May Flowers. It's May, and all we were having was showers. Wrong month, right?

Diabetes has been doing a pretty good job of behaving itself lately. It makes it take somewhat of a backseat. It's easy to "forget" how much diabetes is a part of your life when it's behaving somewhat. But, it makes me happy to know that I can go through the motions without having so much stress, even if it is only for a little while.

Right now, my stress is focusing on work and trying to get everything caught up and done as much ahead as possible, since I'm leaving for a vacation in two weeks. Not easy, but I've been working hard and I'm hoping everything falls into place.

Wish me luck!

And, here's a picture of the cake I did over the weekend. It was very colorful and I even did some tie-dyed icing for border. It was my first attempt at this method and I thought it turned out pretty well.