Monday

Monday morning I called my mother, and learned that my paternal Grandma has deteriorated significantly, and has been moved to a professional nurse's home so that she could be cared for more easily. I was kind of bummed about the whole thing. I mean, she's 91 years old, so we've seen it coming for a while now, but I wasn't expecting to hear that. It's sort of a shock when you learn that someone you've known your whole life will be leaving you shortly.

Aleia was first to perform in the 2nd grade talent show at 10:30 Monday morning. She sang the 'Start of Something New', karaoke version, from the High School Musical Soundtrack. Mrs. Bell turned the music down a little too low, so Lea was singing kind of softly, but still she remembered all the words! It was very gutsy of her, and I was very proud!  : )  When I was her age, I was very shy. I wouldn't have had the nerve to get up in front of the entire class. What a cutie!  : )

About noon, I got a call from our kids' counselor at the high school, saying that our daughter had received an ultimatum of sorts from her estranged boyfriend, and that she'd turned him in, and would I like to come pick her up because she wanted to go home. Basically, to make a long story short, he was depressed because he wanted them to be exclusive, and she'd been trying to tell him that she needed some space, wanted to get caught up on her homework, and perhaps it might be better if they were to hang out with lots of different people/friends, and just take it easy. He said 'without her, life wasn't worth living', blah, blah, blah. I'm thinking that's not the best way. . to get somebody to want to 'hang out'. I'm so done with the melodrama. Fortunately, his family is helping him out, so he'll most likely be okay, but how incredibly depressing . . on the second to last day of school.

After school, our long-time friend, and former neighbor, Marcie, came over/dropped by unexpectedly. Said she had a bunch of extra hamburger buns, and bread and stuff, and would we by chance want any? I was fine with THAT!  : ) You can never have enough bread in the house when you have almost 4 teenagers to feed. Marcie came in and we talked for a while about family stuff, what's been up, and how their horses are doing. . . Smile. Good times.  : )  Jeffy insisted that we buy carrots the other day, 'the long kind with the green stuff', for the express purpose of feeding the horses over at their place. We'll have to pay them a visit soon!

Later Monday afternoon, Stephen Loper called to tell us that his dad had passed away that day at about 3 pm. We were not completely surprised by this, but I was definitely expecting him to be around a few years longer. Sigh. For about 5 years we spent almost every other day over at their house, having dinner with the family, planning our wedding, watching Star Trek, enjoying picnics and barbeques on holidays. . . They sort of took Charlie in for a little while when he was in between apartments, right before we were married. They're more than 'friends of the family'. They're more like a family . . of friends. Definitely like family to us. . . Double sigh. I know he'll be okay, probably better off than he was in the hospital, (we saw him on Saturday), in pain and on life support, but it's weird that he's gone. Charlie said it was his time. We'll sure miss him. It just won't be the same. He's one of those people who's just. . . a good guy. One of those you think of when you hear that scripture quoted from the New Testament: "I was a stranger, and you took me in." Teamed up with his wife, Dawn, they were, and are, a powerful force for good, now and always. Grammie Loper never forgets a birthday. She's always sending our kids cards and things. . . which makes them feel special. She made blessing dressed for both of our girls. . . I never know what to say, in the way of condolences, in these types of situations.

Looks like the funeral's tomorrow, Thursday, on Tommy's birthday. Poor Tommy.

Life is full of weird ups and downs. . .