Holiday Weekend in Michigan!

Wow what a whirl wind of a few weeks! I have experienced such joy and exhaustion all at the same time! I spent the weekend and Monday with my Family in Michigan. Mostly with my Mom. She is an amazing woman! I spent Friday night with Heidi, sister time. That was so nice to reconnect with her. I feel so distant from my sisters lately...I then went back to Mom's and on Saturday did a massive clean and reorganize of her back yard patio. I wanted to leave her with something nice to enjoy. I think Heidi will be helping her with planting flowers. Amanda and Audrey and later on Stephanie came over to help me. It was nice to spend some time with my niece's. I wish I was around for them more. I can still remember being their ages! They were a great help! It was fun for Julie and Ethan to spend time with them and Oma too! I also burned a bunch of old business papers of my Dad's.

I thought of him frequently this weekend. Man, I still wish he was alive. I know there is a Plan for our family, but sometimes I wish he could be around. It will be 9 years in a few days that he will have been gone. Time goes quickly but it still aches the same!

Sunday was a nice family day. I went to church with Mom and then afterwards a picnic at the park with Heidi, Tom, the kids, Mom and my brother Richard. It was a great time together! We were just missing a few! Julie has really blossomed with so much family around, she enjoys the attention! We then went to my sister, Julie's house to pick up Emma who had been there with Julie's kids for the weekend. We visited there for the evening. Ethan slept most of the time. All the playing wore him right out! Julie was worn out too!
Monday I was going to go back over to Julie's but I saw that Mom still needed a bit of help so we tackled the "Garage". I went through my Dad's tools and bits and bobs. I think it is starting to look more organized now. We worked until dark and didn't end up going home until Tuesday morning. What a long weekend but a great one! At the end My kids didn't want to leave. I wish we lived closer!