This past Saturday marked a year since mom died. On Friday, the 28th, Tyler and I were both hyper aware that last year on that day, we stayed by mom’s side all day other than when we grabbed a bite to eat. We watched her deteriorate hour by hour. It feels like yesterday. And it feels like forever. We still think of her every day. We still miss her.

I read this on Facebook yesterday and it couldn’t have been more appropriate. 

Tyler and Rick got here very late on the 27th and we stayed up talking until 3:00 a.m. We all slept in and then headed to Tavares to see Jenna and Sloan. Tyler was very excited to meet his new niece. Before coming here he went to Build-a-Bear, and dressed it in a U of A t-shirt and added a recording of his voice saying “Uncle Tyler loves you,” whenever you squeeze the bear’s hand. It is adorable. He changed her diaper-with some coaching…He held her for so long. We went out to lunch and she slept through it. It was a fun day-very touching. And very soothing somehow-the whole life goes on concept.

There was a concert across the street when we got home, and our friends from the condo all went and really wanted us to join them. They wanted to see Tyler. I explained we weren’t really in the mood, so of course at ten, three of them were banging on our door. One of the hazards of living so close to others. Apparently they had been drinking for hours! Yikes. They were drunk. Loud. Inappropriate. It could have been very entertaining if we had been in the same “place” but we weren’t. It was a late night.

We took another trip to Tavares to spend some more time with Jenna and family while Tyler was still here. We also squeezed in a trip to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios on Halloween. I’m glad we were all able to spend time together for this weekend. We all needed it. I will post photographs separately-the gallery function isn’t working today.