I'm Back

So I made it back.  The funeral went well.  Very good turnout. My grandmother was very well liked and related to just about everyone within 3 towns of where she lived.  I must've met at least 20 8th cousins twice removed kind of people that I never knew.  I got in Thursday night.  Funeral was Friday morning.  Then we had the required lunch for everyone after the funeral.  Being a catholic funeral on a Friday during Lent meant the church required we serve fish.  I've never had fish at a funeral but we got some of that for the catholics and some lunch meat and cheese for the noncatholics.  The church ladies provided everything else which meant TONS of desserts and salads and casseroles...all of which were absolutely delicious.  One such dessert was a ho-ho cake.  That's right...a ho-ho cake.  This looked fantastic but I'm proud to say I didn't even try 1 bite and stuck to my no chocolate rule.  It was tough...seriously.  I stayed with my parents and grandfather so for the last 5 days I've eaten nothing but fish and sandwiches and cake (there was carrot cake and white cake there too) and cookies and banana bread.  Monday was spent going through my grandmother's clothes and jewelry with my mom and her sister.  Not fun.  We tried to pick out pieces we thought the women of the family would like to have and then they're having the rest of the jewelry appraised and sold or whatever.  I picked what I liked out of the bunch for my sister and I but I have no idea if I got the "valuable" stuff.  I don't really care.  It's nice to have something that was hers.  I did pick out two rosaries that I'll give to my daughters for their confirmations.  Thought that would be nice.  I realized while I was up there that my cousins have very different memories of my grandmother than I do.  My brother and sister too, I suppose.  We moved from up north when I was 5 weeks old so my grandmother was always a long distance grandma, seen once or twice a year and cards and gifts on holidays.  The rest of the grandkids remember Grandma's cookie jar always having a little treat in it and this little plastic kid cups in the shape of cowboy boots.  Those memories are empty to me.  I felt a bit cheated while I was up there in that I missed out knowing my grandmother the way they did...the way my girls know my mother...cookies and all.  To be fair, I didn't go out of my way as an adult to get to know her much better.  I visited every few years if I could.  I need to make more of an effort to visit my grandfather more often. I was supposed to leave Monday night but the flight got cancelled so I didn't get in until 3 pm Tuesday afternoon.  Check another day off of work for that.  I came back to work yesterday, absolutely exhausted and deflated.  I'm starting to feel human again today.

In other news, I weighed myself this morning.  155.  That's 2.5 lbs down from the last time and a new low!  I'm shocked given how I ate over the weekend but I'll take it.  I did get out on Saturday and Sunday for long walks so that must've helped.  I also had an NSV just before I left.  I was trying to decide what to wear to this thing and I have the perfect dress hanging in my closet.  I don't remember when I bought it but I recall it didn't fit for long.  I looked at the size...size 9.  Yeah right.  I tried it on and I could zip it all the way up.  It looked way too tight and I won't be wearing it in public yet but it zipped.  And I didn't even need to call Hubby in to do it.  I zipped it up myself...all the way up.  A size 9 people!  I'm getting there.  I can't wait to be in single digits.  I honestly can't remember the last time I was.  I think I was 18 or 19...maybe.

My pain was gone by about Friday.  At least that's when I stopped taking the pain meds.  I finished my antibiotic on Sunday.  I have been pain free since.  Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers this last week.  I'm feeling better now and am looking forward to things getting back to normal.

At some point, I'll post pics of the Renaissance Festival.  I completely forgot to do that.  Also, I have no prayer of catching up on all the blogs so if something exciting happened while I was gone - a milestone, death, marriage, engagement, childbirth, surgery, etc - please leave me a quick comment so I can check it out.  Otherwise, I'll just be starting over with the current stuff.

Happy Thursday everybody!