Hello from Home

Well, I’m home. It was very hard to leave Arizona. Mom and I both cried at the airport. This had been the longest we’d been together and we had a blast. We laughed till we peed. We played 154 games of Scrabble. (I won that marathon by 4 games.)

I got home and rediscovered that I am married to the most amazing man. Nelson cleaned, straightened, retted, decluttered, put together, and fixed the entire house (minus the basement). He got my great-grandmothers chiming mantle clock fixed and the grandfather clock that we bought my parents for their 25th anniversary (and I inherited when Daddy died). I absolutely (and whatever word that goes beyond that) love it when Nelson cleans because it means something to him and it stays cleaner longer. The beyond amazing thing is that he also got rid of stuff. I’m married to a pack rat and getting rid is not in his vocabulary unless he’s selling it. And he’s done both! He’s been getting rid of stuff on FreeCycle and selling things on Ebay. I’m so proud of him and my home feels so much more like a home!

I got my Asher fix last night, too. Beth came by so that I could see Asher and her new short haircut. The cut is adorable. It’s really cute and sassy, but it makes her look grown up. That’s a tough one: to look in the face of your baby and see a young woman. Perhaps nostalgia was high just after coming home. Anyway, it was also good to get hugs, kisses, and all the updates from Asher. He was very good too, at putting all the toys away to keep it clean for Pepa!

Then today I got up to go to work. When I walked into Maam’s house, she was eating breakfast. I said good morning and her face fell right into her oatmeal and her mood grew instantly dark. She was not happy to see me. I spoke briefly with the morning LPN and she said that the family had been letting Maam be alone some and the LPN wasn’t surprised Maam was unhappy. I called one of the daughters and got her message machine so I called the farming son up the lane. He understood and said that since one of the other brothers was doing some work around the farm and he was going to be around that they would check on her today. It looks like I’m out of a job.

So I came home and have begun to make calls and get working on other options. I called one of the members of the local group looking to do grants for the ministry here in town. I also called Curves. The owner called me with an offer while I was at Mom’s. I had already agreed to work one Saturday a month for my membership. The gal she had working M-F 4-8 finished nursing school and accepted a job so that slot needed to be filled. Initially I decided against it since it was only 20 hours and it conflicted with the companion job. But now 20 hours looked way better than none. So I called and put my name in the hat. The manager is out of town until tomorrow, so we’ll see.

I’m going to meet with a woman next week to discuss a proposal that she needs written to get funding and she has the names of two other people seeking funding. Guess we’ll see where that goes, too.

Well, I need to get some other writing done. Until later…adieu.