Today was a tough
We laid to rest my daughter’s best friend’s mom
Ellie probably spends more time at their house than ours, or at least pretty close
They opened their doors to her and considered her family, her 2nd family
She would sleep over there, play games with the family, spend time at the grandparents, go out to dinner and on the night before she passed Ellie and the family fell asleep on the couch watching their moms favorite movie
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This loss is tough for me, yes, a bit because of Cari but really that’s not the main reason. Still, these past two days especially brought back a lot
This loss is tough for me because of how close Ellie was to this family
This loss is tough for me because it’s a mom
This loss is tough for me because I can relate to the dad
This loss is tough for me because it highlights our own longevity and that death is a certainty for all of us and how we just never know when it will happen
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I wasn’t planning to spend the entire day at the wake, but I did, except when I left to grab some food which also turned into a short nap (we drove 4+ hours from a softball tournament in the morning)
After the funeral service at the church, I wasn’t planning to go to the burial, but I did. I wasn’t planning to go to the luncheon either, but I did.
Her dad stopped me on the way out of the church and asked me to come. I certainly wasn’t going to say no. I’m glad I went. I’m glad I went for me and for him and for Ellie.
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I sat next to her dad at the luncheon, not necessarily on purpose, that’s just what happened. We talked quite a bit. I listened, mostly, but opened up about some of own experiences.
I imagine there will be more of these conversations. For him, but also for me
There’s just something about this one, it hits really close to home
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A butterfly landed near us at the burial.
A song was played at the cardinals game Friday.
There are so many things that happen with death, it can’t just be a coincidence.
Besides that, we wrapped up another weekend of softball, this time in a very hot and humid St. Louis. I sent Carson off to WV to go white water rafting on the New River (I’m slightly jealous). She leaves for a youth group camp next Tuesday after one more tournament. Then a week+ at the lake. And shortly after that football starts and then school and summer’s almost over.
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We visited the University of Iowa and University of Wisconsin Madison recently. I’m not sure what’s up next but college is approaching fast!
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Our garden is growing. We produced over 100 white round potatoes already. We’re also growing a variety of tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, 2 varieties of lettuce, jalapenos, banana peppers, garlic, onion, cilantro, pea pods, green beans, dill, basil and I think we have a random pumpkin out there too.
Unfortunately we’ve had a lot of rain lately so I’m not sure how much we’ll yield this year, especially the cucumbers and zucchini.
I covered the ground with mulch this year and fed the new plants some bone/blood meal. The mulch does help with the weeds. The mosquitos are awful. The rain, however, has been either too much or too little and the heat/humidity is sometimes unbearable. Last year was too wet. So we’ll see. I also have a rabbit that keeps getting in. I thought I got it out but just today I saw it again 🙁
Until next time …