Life goes on...

 Spring break is almost over.  I still have two tired teenagers in bed with the curtains drawn trying to get the last moments of long sleep before the push of the last weeks of school.  Last week was quite a week.  I was alone all week...from Sunday night until late Friday night.  It was a long week and a lonely one.  I am pretty happy alone for about two nights and then I am so glad to see the group...I miss them alot.


The boys came home on Friday night...around 10 pm.  They had the time of their life in Mexico.  They built a house, hung out with the people and spent time counting their blessings.  My oldest son couldn't name one thing that was the best part...he loved it all.  They worked hard too.  They poured concrete and nailed walls together and hung drywall and mixed stucco...they played soccer in the dusty street and they played with kids at the orphanage.

Good stuff I say.  Meanwhile, back at the ranch...as my father used to say, life went on.  Dogs were let out every morning, and chased around the neighborhood when they ran away.  Fish were fed and rooms were cleaned.  Job interviews and Pap smears and mammograms were completed.    A funeral was attended and a bottle of wine was consumed.  Shoes were chewed and delivered to be repaired.  All before the boys made it home.

They hit the door at 10pm on Friday and all three were in different showers by 10:05pm.  Apparently they had gone without water all week and were pretty stinky.  I could tell by the state of the teenage faces that they had not seen much, if any water during the week...let alone soap.  My husband had one shower before the pipes broke and he was ready to be clean too.  The simple things in life...like a hot shower.  I know I take that for granted.

Saturday was a blur.  My husband moved from the couch to the chair most of the day.  We could hear different cadences of snoring in the different positions.  At one point, I woke him up to see if he wanted to be awake at all during the day and he muttered..."Just a few more minutes"...snorted and fell back into his coma.  I just left him there.  He finally woke up for dinner, ate, drank a beer, dealt some cards to play solitare and fell asleep on the couch again.  I guess he was pretty tired.

My oldest son and I had some unfinished business.  I bought some beautiful red carnations at the grocery store and we went to the cemetary.  We stood at the grave site in wonder...the earth was piled high, the flowers were on top of that, and his buddy was gone.  The Queen and I stood with him as he stared at the dirt, the flowers and held his head low.  He walked over and put the flowers on the mound of dirt and I watched and tears rolled down his face.  He got it...it's final...his buddy is gone.  I asked him if he wanted to pray...he said yes but could you, Mom?...so I did.  I thanked God for this sweet boy and asked for comforting angels to surround his parents and brother and begged for peace for Mac's buddy.  Then my son bent down, and took a rock from the dirt, rolled it around in his hand and put it in his pocket.  I didn't ask but I guess that's his way to remember...

We did our usual Sunday routine with church and got to have a great lunch with some of the Mexico group and a good friend.  We ate and drank and the mexico group relived their week.  It was good to hear.  They really did have a good time.

Then off to Boulder to drop the Queen off and see my son's favorite girl.  I was glad to see her too, honestly.  I have missed her being around.  We spent a couple of hours having dinner and talking about life.  They were just happy to be together and frankly, to see him with a smile on his face was just what I needed.  We went for frozen yogurt...for "Sunday Funday"...thank you Aaron Grider, and said our good byes.  We kissed the Queen goodbye and my boy walked his favorite girl to her dorm.  They walked holding hands and I could tell that they were glad to be together and sad to be apart for another week.

We headed home and he talked for the whole hour and one half trip.  He talked of mexico, his buddy, his girl, the prom, a tux, baseball and what he is looking forward to this summer.  I sat and listened...encouraged him to talk and hear his take on life.  It was the up for all the downs that have been going on these days.

I woke up this morning to this view.  There was snow last night, a dusting, and it makes the world look scrubbed clean.  Pikes Peak has its majestic white sweater on today.

Life goes on...I guess it has to...But it is never the same after tragedy.  It is different.  That is just what it is.  Things can and do change in an instant and we will never be the same.  But, we go on...we have to...what else is there to do?

We'll tawk tommorrow,

I love you all,

Terry