Aaand they're off

In the mail that is. Mom's gift, Peggy's gift, Judy's gift, and the other copy of my will and trust documents that are going to my sister and her husband so that some adult knows what to do if something happens to me. Oh, and the thank-you cards did go in the packages as well since that way I didn't have to pay for the seperate stamps. In case anyone's forgotten what the presents look like, and because I'm trying to raise internet awareness of my projects, here's a repeat of the pictures. No pictures of the documents though, that would be boring.

I got roses!

My parents are so sweet. These were on my front porch this afternoon. They smell really nice and I'm very glad Eldest Kidlet brought them in before they froze!

Awww, so cute

AVI of Assisstant Villiage Idiot challanged me to find and post a cute picture. I think the idea is that it increases blog traffic by having something that would show up on a search engine. This particular picture, that hopefully won't disappear, is courtesy of Bill of the Birds and Bird watcher's Digest and represents the two bluebirds my oldest kidlet saw on our own snowy balcony railing yesterday.

But really, I have a good excuse

I just realized that it's been over a year since my last post. My computer refusing to let me on to Blogger Dashboard has only been an issue for about two months, which was ironically right about when I wanted to start writing again.

My main excuses are that all last fall and early winter were spent househunting. Beloved and I found a wonderful house the beginning of December and, due to daily phonecalls and a lot of focus by Beloved, we moved in on the 23rd and celebrated Christmas in our new home with my in-laws.

That brings the narrative to the beginning of the year when Beloved started having blinding headaches and noticed a swelling under his left jaw. A PETscan revealed several tumors and he went in for surgery on March 3rd where the surgeon removed three cancerous tumors and a portion of the left jugular vein due to infiltration. Beloved got a month to recover and then started three months of chemo and daily radiation. What nobody knew was that the cancer had spread to his lungs and was growing fast enough that I.V. chemo wasn't able to touch it. Four days after his last radiation treatment I took Beloved to the emergency room because his temperature was climbing. June 16th, after about a week on a ventilator in ICU he passed away surrounded by his parents, friends, and pastors. His funeral was Father's Day after which he was cremated and buried with his older brother in Colorado. Only eleven months after we came to Missouri John had become not just my Beloved but well loved by nearly everyone he had dealings with.

And of course after that my computer quit talking to Blogger and without John I couldn't fix it, but that doesn't seem to matter a whole lot at this point.