Odd weekend

Posted by kara

The weekend started out on a somewhat sad note. I was remembering my grandpa all Thursday night and Friday. He passed away 10 years ago. My mom called me Sunday morning 10 years ago. I had a ton of projects to finish up, a co-op job to find, and Paul’s 21st birthday coming up. Paul drove me home right away. Anyway, my grandpa was someone we all looked up to. He was hardworking, brave, admirable, and kind. He always had a smile on his face. We knew he was proud of us, and we were proud to be his grandkids. When he passed away, we all looked to my grandma even more. She is one of the most extraordinary women ever. That may sound like an exaggeration, but if you know her, you know it’s true. She is really a huge part of our family.

Anyway, this is also Paul’s birthday weekend. So we’ve been trying to celebrate that. Toshi bought him a Lightning McQueen toy car that she amazingly kept secret for 5 days! We baked him a cake and decorated it on Saturday. Toshi helped blow out the candles, and her hair caught on fire. I’ll post video of that later. (Toshi wanted me to draw Paul, a mouse, airplane, grass, heart, and balloon. It mainly looks like blobs thanks to the huge tip I was using.)

But the thing hanging over my head this weekend, is that my family friend/pastor, Bill Chidester, passed away on Saturday. Things have been up and down for almost the last year. He had pancreatic cancer. I remember checking his blog for health updates in the middle of the night when Martha was a newborn. The Chidesters have been on our mind every day. It’s hard seeing them go through this and not being able to do anything to help. It seems like he has always been a part of my life, and it’s going to be sad to not see him anymore. He will be missed. There are just no words to express the sadness I feel for the family.

So, I think I’ll have to do a redo for Paul’s birthday weekend. Surely my sporadic crying has put a damper on things.

And I got hit by a blackbird today. UGH. I had Paul check my head for scratch marks, but he didn’t find any. I washed my hair twice with big globs of shampoo. If getting pooped on is good luck, maybe getting hit by one is also good luck. Maybe things are going to start being good. Not that they aren’t good. I know Bill would love for us to be thankful for life.

Here are some random pics: