my sister is half full

I love my big sister.
She has such a great sense of humor and a positive outlook. I love that she sees life with her glass half full.
She laughs alot, even in the face of some pretty tough times.
She called this morning at 6:45am
She, my 85 year old mother, niece and great niece are driving from Texas for a visit. they had stopped at a hotel for the night and in the morning our mother who has Parkinson's fell out of the bed.
Luckily she wasn't hurt badly, just scraped and bloodied elbows and they had to call for help to get her up.
As my sister is telling me this on the phone, she starts out by saying, I just wanted to call and tell you about our latest adventure. She then proceeds to tell me what had happened. She is laughing and then tells me how cute the guys were who came to help. I can hear my mother in the background agreeing with her on the cuteness of the guys.
Ya gotta love her. She made the best of the situation, chose to see the humor in it and keeping a positive focus on the benefits of continuing the trip so our mother could see the grandchildren and most of the great grandchildren that she hasn't met.

Is my sister being realistic? Did it scare her? Of course it did. She is the care giver of our mother and knows better than anyone else what could have happened. Did she dwell on what could have happened or what could still happen if they continued on the trip, being a long way from home in case it had been serious? She made a choice. She chose to help our mother live life to the fullest, to even take a risk but not let fear of the what if's, or the oh my gosh's to keep her from the joys that are also a choice.

Because my sister sees life as a glass that is half full rather than half empty, she is taking a risk and giving our mother the opportunity to have a wonderful adventure, to see things she hasn't seen before and to look upon the faces of her posterity and have the joy of holding and kissing great grandchildren and experiencng what life and joy is all about.

I love my big sister and want to be more like her.

Reflections on Mother's Day

I love Mothers Day,

Not because of what I get, but because I survived and am still glad to have been and still am a Mother.

I get to reflect on memories of my own Mother and feel and express apprecation to her for all she was and still is to me.

I read a magazine article once that asked a group of women, if they had to do it over again, would they have chosen to be a mother and it was sad to see how many would have opted out. How sad.

Not me, I would do it over again in a heart beat.!!!!

I was privileged to have been the Mother to 8 extraordinary individuals. Each one different and unique and yet all with things in common.

I get to reflect on my role as a mother, to wince at my mistakes, to laugh at the many good times, to sorrow over sad times and things I couldn't fix or make go away and the hope that overall I hadn't done a bad joy, that my children would grow up to be good people and still like me.

How blessed I was and still am.

I marvel at how quickly the roles change.

I am still a Mother but not needed in the same way.
We are no longer adult and child, but adult and adult.
I enjoy my children and have joy in them and in our role as adults.
Now they are teaching me and helping me.
I love Mother's Day.
It has been and still is great to be a Mother.

If you cant lick em

Ok, So I kept waiting for the rain to stop long enough to get some planting done. Yea, right. I finally decided to just start and if it rained, keep going. It worked out fine until I slipped on a muddy slope and fell very ungracefully on my tush. Once I was sure I hadn't broken anything, I slugged onward through the mud and rain. I actually got alot done, I just couldn't go in the house until I was completely done. Luckily my washer is right at the back door. I don't think the work clothes will ever be the same but I plan to save them for the next rainy day. So, working in the rain can actually be fun.

playing tricks

How come most of the illnesses that kids and people get are contagious before you know they or you have anything and by the time you find out, you have exposed a gazillion other people. How fair is that?
How is a person supposed to know the old gallbladder is acting up when the pain is many times in the back and chest? No one taught that in health class at school.
I remember going in with a back ach and was totally taken back when the nurse said gallbladder. I really thought he was joking and didn't appreciate the misplaced humor. What a surprise.
I was visiting my mom and sister recently and my sister made the mistake of saying she had missed out on getting sick much or having alot of surgeries. One day her back was hurting and she went to lay down on the floor to ease it. As we were talking a little light bulb lite up. She was describing the classic symtems of gallbladder. The more we talked the more sure I was that she was going to need to see her doctor. Yup, now she has joined the ranks of the surprised gallbladder victims and will be getting hers removed in 2 1/2 weeks. So if you haven't had the privilege of finding out your gallbladder can play tricks on you, you might want to google it and be prepared should yours do it to you.

the support

I was recently driving down a road and was looking at the beautiful landscaping along the way.
I noticed a small tree that had been staked when it was newly planted. the sad thing was that the tree was now a couple of years old and because the stake and wire support had not been removed, it was cutting deeply into the tree.
The very thing that was meant to help support and give strength from winds and weather was now slowly choking and in fact weakening it.
For some reason it really made me sad.
It reminded me of parenting in some ways.
We are meant to help strengthen the tree (child) until is has sufficient roots to stand on its on.
Once the tree has gotten its own roots, the support is no longer needed and should be removed for the tree to reach its full height.
When the stake and wire is left past its time, it can actually keep the tree from getting strength from the roots and can cause it to become weak and be damaged in a strong wind.
Sometimes it is hard to remove the support and allow the tree to face the wind and storms on its own but the greater good comes from doing just that and allowing the tree to reach its full growth potential.
I hope that I have fulfilled my job as a support and by removing the wire, allow my trees to gain their own strength and reach their full growth.

My Dad

On February 4th, my Dad took his last breath and peacefully passed from this earthly life.

He was in his own bed in his own home. My mother had kissed him goodnight as she always did the night before. My sister and I were in the room with him and when we realized that he was gone, we called our mother into the room and she kissed him one last time.

He was 92 in December and had been wheelchair bound for several years. My prayer for him had been that when he died that it wouldn't be in a strange place or in pain.
My prayers were answered.

Today as I was going through some of my favorite pictures of him I came across this one. I love this picture. It so shows the fun side of him. When we would ask him how he was feeling, he would usually hold his hand up, rubbing his fingers and thumb together, meaning he felt with his fingers.

I wasn't sure how I would feel when the time came to lose him. I felt calm, at peace and relief for him.

the next morning after he died, my sister and I went into our Mother's room and crawled into bed with her. We hugged each other, cryed and talked about him.
We all felt the same way, sad but at peace. We all felt that we would miss him but that we were so very happy that he had gone peacefully and that we wanted to celebrate his life, to talk about him and all of the good things that we remembered.
All during the time that I was there, we would talk about him off and on and laugh as we would remember something. It was so neat.
Sometimes we would wonder if we should be more upset or sad that he was no longer there and each time we would feel that peace and comfort.
I am so very thankful for the blessings that our family has received and for the prayers that were answered.

Granddaddy Price

Hello everyone. This is Misty, I wanted to let everybody know that Mom's Dad passed away this week. He had been in bad health for a while so this wasn't totally unexpected but is still sad.

Thankfully, Mom was there. This is/was such a blessing. I know Mom would have felt bad to not be there in Granddaddy's last moments. She has been going every couple of months to help out and give my Aunt Pat a break and I am so happy that this was one of those times.

She, my Aunt, and my Grannie are all doing well. As I mentioned before, he was not doing well and in recent times had been in some pain too so I think some relief comes with the sadness.

Mom was supposed to be coming home this week but understandably has extended her stay until later this month. We miss her much, especially with her going through these sad times and can't wait until she is home.