When life hands you lemons… July 28, 2009

…make lemonade!  I remember buying a greeting card that said that when I found out a family friend had cancer.  The line stuck with me. 

This last week has been a bit difficult, but has also had its positives.  I think that being together with family so much this last week has helped us cope, share memories, find some comic relief here and there, and band together to be productive and face what lies ahead. 

I’ve been up and down each day, but feel best when I’m helping to do something toward my grandma’s estate and settling her affairs.  Since I’m a financial planner I naturally dove in to help the family put together a list of accounts, to-dos, etc., and begin taking action.  My grandma had a great estate attorney and accounting firm who are getting all the legal and tax ducks in a row, but all the other stuff is rather daunting to my dad and his siblings.  But, alas, I quite enjoy it.  Financial geekery, ahoy!

The last week has been filled with especially bad eating and no exercise.  Y’all get a gallery since I’m too lazy and tired to individually insert all of the pics.  But here are some highlights, per my usual m.o.:

• Pizza three times for dinner, plus a few days of having leftovers for lunch.  Oy. vey.
• Dessert, dessert, dessert! 
• Mexican food for like 3 nights in a row.  E-gads!
• Hardly any fruit and fresh veg 😦  And I can feel it 😦
• The frickin’ heat here is INSANE.  It’s been well over 100 the last few days.  Tomorrow is supposed to be over 100 again. Then we’ll “cool down” into the upper 80’s this weekend. Amen for the A/C!!
• The Powerball jackpot is $102M, and I bought a $4 ticket.  And no, I do not condone this activity!
• I visited the cemetary where my grandparents have their names on a remembrance wall.  It was a beautiful, peaceful evening, and I am glad I went.
• On Thursday I get to see Erin!!  Yayaya!  I’ve missed her so!

Hope you’re all having a good week.  I’m ready for it to be over.  Tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday I’m helping my mom finish packing, move to her new place, and clean out her old place.   Should be a disgustingly hot and sweaty endeavor.  If I survive I’ll be back soon to tell you all about it, I’m sure 😉

Ain’t life grand? July 21, 2009

My life officially sucks.  I’ve been a bit of a depressed stress case the last several days, and then this morning my world was rocked a bit. 

My grandmother had an ischemic stroke late last night at her house, and my uncle found her unconscious this morning.  She’s in the hospital and still unconscious.  Her entire left brain was affected, and it does not look like she will recover at all.  This is the end of the line for her it seems 😦  I think my aunt is flying in from Colorado, and my brother from Seattle, so we can all gather to say goodbye and determine when to take her off of life support.  She is mostly breathing on her own, but every once in awhile the breathing machine kicks in.  She did not want any life prolonging measures, and at 88 I can understand why.  (Hell, at 27 I don’t want life sustaining measures.)  She’s had a long, fruitful life, but I’m sad that this all happened so fast and I won’t get to interact with her again.

Not sure when I’ll post again, but see you on the flipside.

Flippity flop July 15, 2009

My day kept swinging from postive to negative as if some sadistic bastard were flipping a switch.  Although the day went up and down and all around, it ended on a tres positive note 😉 

Yesterday’s eats:

Kashi Go Lean with bluebs and almond milkI'm diggin' the KGL's nuances and the voluminous portions, and may just have to deal with buying more cereal in a box, packaging and all.Romaine, boca burger, yellow bell pepp, avocado, mushroom, balsamic, grape tomsOh, and some pepitas for interest. Yay!Fruit, glorious fruit! And a carrot 😉