An Unexpected Goodbye

On November 5, at about 8:30 in the evening, my mom suddenly collapsed.  My youngest brother, Jared, was home with her at the time, and despite his heroic CPR efforts, and the efforts of medical personnel at the hospital, she was gone.  A beautiful woman, who was kind, generous and giving beyond belief, was gone just that suddenly. 

The unexpected nature of her passing means that there were no good-byes, and very little preparation.  I am still trying to decide if that was a blessing or not.  I think it was, in the sense that I know full well that my mom would have hated to be chronically sick and bedridden, dependent upon others for care.  She could barely stand to have diabetes, and was thoroughly tired of the constant need to manage it, though she did a really good job of that.  She hated being "sucked in" to the medical arena, hated having to watch everything she ate, hated being scolded by her doctors (and her daughter) to do more. 

But it was also hard to not have had that last opportunity to talk to her, to say good-bye.  I guess we never know when our time will come, or that of our loved ones, so the best we can do is to show and tell those we love just how much they mean to us every chance we have.  She always remembered every grandchild's birthday, sent home-made Valentines, loved each of us unconditionally.  She truly was one of the most selfless people I have ever known.  Even during the funeral preparation, I found myself thinking I wanted to call her about this or that that happened, and I'm still doing that. 

One blessing is that we had a surprise birthday picnic for Mom's 75th birthday just a month before her passing. 

  Here's some other favorites of my mom:

This is one of my most favorite of the few shots of my mom and dad, taken at Grandma and Grandpa Pyne's house.

Good-bye for now, mama, till we meet again. 

Atticus

I don't know if it's because I've been babysitting Atty on at least a part-time basis since his mom went back to work, or what, but that kid does something to my heart strings.  He is so full of personality and love.  Here he is with his dad's sunglasses.  I eventually had to hide them because he was getting so frustrated with them falling off. 

 

This week I dropped by at Kris and Sterling's house one night.  As I was getting ready to leave, Atty started fussing about me leaving.  I picked him up, and somewhat jokingly asked him if he wanted to go to Grammie's for a sleepover (I haven't done one yet with him).  He VERY enthusiastically said yes, and immediately waved at his mom and dad, "Bye mama, bye dadda."  He couldn't wait to leave.  It went pretty well, except he didn't get to sleep at a reasonable hour (a trend at Grammie's house, I guess).  There was one slightly rough patch where he woke up missing his mama, but after we got up and got ready to go, I asked him if he wanted to go see mama and he said no.  When Kaiya and Teague sleep over, they practically push their parents out the door.  Ahhh ... the love of grandchildren.  There's nothing so sweet. 

T-Ball

The latest sport that Kaiya and Teague are trying out is T-ball.  Teague's fondest wish, expressed many times, is to learn to play baseball, so T-ball is where you gotta start.

Here's Kaiya getting ready to bat, while Teague awaits his turn. 

 

Kaiya's running the bases and trying to hold her helmet on at the same time.

 

 

Doggy Day Care

My friends Tim and Mark were going on an Alaskan cruise, so when Tim mentioned plans for who would watch their two dogs, Cody and Dakota, I decided "why not?"  I could still work down there, and it would be a nice break for me as well. 

Here's Cody (asleep on my legs) ...

 

And Dakota ...

 

These are dogs with big personalities!  We had a fun time together.

I also took some time to visit the Desert Museum.

 

Scenery on the drive to the museum, and that far mountain range is actually in Mexico.

The museum was great, although I didn't allow myself enough time to really see all of it (I'm most disappointed about missing the hummingbird house). 

 

As you can see, there was quite a variety there.  I didn't get shots of a lot of it.  There was a bear that seemed so close to me, I was afraid he was going to jump his ravine and grab me!

 

Desert sunsets are beautiful.

Kaiya Turns 6!

Saturday was also Kaiya's sixth birthday.  The story I have often told is that six years ago I was sitting at a computer, on a ship in the middle of the Baltic Sea, crying because I had just learned through email that Kaiya had been born.  Kaiya changed my life ... she turned me into one of those obnoxious grandparents - you know, the ones who brag about their grandkids every chance they get, and who spoil their grandkids and annoy their own kids?  Guilty, guilty and guilty.  But - and I am NOT just merely doing the routine bragging - Kaiya truly is an extraordinary child.  She brings me joy every single day.

This year Kaiya had a friend birthday party at Planet Play, and I went along to help out.  What a crazy group of kids!  It was a lot of fun.

Teague got the piece of cake with "Kaiya" on it, so he thought it was pretty funny that he was eating his sister.

So, as I've said before, I've started doing "Grammie Dates" for the grandkids birthday.  They get to choose the activity and it's special time with just Grammie.  Kaiya wanted to do the same thing we did last year - mani/pedi's, followed by Afternoon Tea at Grand America - but she wanted her mom and Kris to come too.  So we high-tailed it out of the party to go to our mani-pedi appointment ...

And then on to tea. 

Half Marathon

Stephanie is getting more and more into the various running events (Ragnar, marathons, etc.), and on Saturday she ran her first half-marathon, along with Sterling.  It started up in Big Cottonwood Canyon, and ended up in the business area at 6200 South and I-215, where we (Mickel and the kids and I) met them at the finish line.  They both did very well, with Steph coming in under two hours and Sterling finishing fourth in his division.  They (along with all the other runners) were a little miffed that the course was actually 13.7 miles, rather than 13.1.  As Steph put it, the end of the race is not a good place to find out there's another .6 miles to go when you think you're finished. 

Then we all went to breakfast at IHOP.  :-)

Kris and Sterling's New Front Yard

Kris and Sterling bought a bunch of plants to landscape the front yard of their new house (although it sounds like they want to go back for more ... doesn't it always seem like you buy a TON of plants, and then you get home and it's not nearly enough?).  I'll have to get a picture of the finished project, but here's a couple of shots of Atticus helping.  He's such a good worker! 

Lagoon 2012

We recently went to Lagoon during a special that they were running, and managed to go on a weekday after school had started.  It was so nice!  It was relatively uncrowded, and we were able to walk right on almost all the rides.  Both Kaiya and Teague are going on more and more big rides, so we don't have to spend most of our time in the kiddie section (in fact, Kaiya told me that she doesn't think she'll fit on most of those rides by next year).  Alas, Kaiya was just a hair too short for some of the best rides, even though some of the attendants let her on a few of the less scary ones.  She'll probably be tall enough by next year!  

 I really only got photos when they went on the kiddie rides, since otherwise I was going on the ride too and didn't think to take any shots.

 

Our last ride was the Sky Ride (not sure if that's the right name, but the ski lift kind of thing that goes from one end of the park to the other), where we caught a great sunset.

 

Dragon Belt

Teague is doing well in karate, and he recently tested for his Dragon Belt.  We're very proud of our Teagster!

Lake Tahoe

We tried to put together a big family get together at Lake Tahoe this year.  It didn't quite go as planned, but it turned out to be a great visit anyway.  Karen and her family were able to make it to Tahoe for a couple of days, as was Valerie and her family (minus husbands in both cases).  It was a great sister visit! 

The three Pyne sisters ... me, Karen and Val

Lincoln is the newest addition to our family, and boy is he a cutie!  He's such a happy baby.  Leticia (Mom) and Thomas (Dad, Val's son) sitting on the beach.

We stayed in a house in South Lake Tahoe.  Rental houses have become my accommodation of choice for family vacations.

Don't ask why there's an undecorated Christmas tree in the living room in August ...

After a couple of days in Tahoe (because everyone else had to get back to work), I drove over to Grass Valley, Calif., where Karen and Mike now live.  What a beautiful area!  Thanks to GPS, I went a different route than I probably could have figured out on my own.  It was like driving through an English countryside, except on the right side of the road.  I even passed through Cool, California ... wouldn't that be an awesome place to live?

Karen and Mike have managed once again to find a "cabin in the woods" type of house.  We also went over to Lake of the Pines, a very nice resort area where Karen works, and walked through the town of Grass Valley. 

After a couple of days with the Willis family, I drove over to Fallon, Nevada to spend some time with Valerie.  I'm embarrassed to say that I have never been to their place before, so it seemed that it was high time I went.  It's a bit out in the middle of nowhere, but they have a huge property (necessary for all of Dale's antique cars) and lots of open space around them.  Val made some awesome chicken tacos, and we had a great visit.  I was able to see Dale's two inventions ...

a folding tailgate seat (guys would absolutely LOVE this in their garage!) and ...

Sock Me, which is a device that allows people to pull on their socks without having to bend over at all (I tried it ... it works like a charm).  He came up with this at the request of a friend who could not pull on his own socks.  Both of these inventions are in the process of being patented.  Thomas, their son, is also quite the inventor.  Because they are deaf parents of a hearing child, he came up with a baby monitor that vibrates when the baby is crying.  Ingenious!