Day 84: Savers

Grammy was an avid shopper at Savers - a store similar to Goodwill, filled with affordable donated clothes and household items.

We spent today going through most of Grammy's clothes and sorting them out for donation.  Mom, Molly, Ashley, and I each kept a few keepsake items and left a few things for Papa.  Then we dropped off nearly a dozen bags of clothing.

Ashley bought a dress for the memorial service at Savers - a colorful 60's inspired dress.  Grammy never wanted people to mourn her death while wearing black.  She always wanted us to celebrate her life while wearing bright colors.

Ashley and I also spent a lot of the day running around choosing a stone and getting the work done for having some plates engraved for her memorial stone.

In the evening, everyone gathered at Sean and Deb's house for dinner and to hang out.  Molly and Nate went to pick up pizza from Papa John's and they didn't have our order made.  Apparently Sean called it in to Papa Murphy's, oops!  We also had a game of poker between Sean, Deb, Kris, Molly, Nathan, Eric and me.  Kris and I ended up splitting the pot so we could go home.

Ashley and I scanning and printing a photo at Target

Papa had a good time playing with Andrew

Declan is holding himself up and getting close to crawling!

 Cash took a green bath!  Molly - he needs some of those tub tablets!

Day 83: Time with Family

Today we had most of the family gathered to support each other in our loss.  Molly, Nate, Cash, and Declan got into town from Michigan, Matt and Cade were in town, and everyone else already lives here.

It was nice to have everyone around because today was Zayne's first football game of the season.  The game was canceled early because of lightning.

Eric and I decided to spend the night with Molly and Nate because the house they were staying at had a spare bed - and last night we slept on Mom and Alan's couches.  We brought Andrew with us to give the Wenberg house a break.

Cash was playing with Andrew in his playpen

Andrew likes to chew on his breathing treatment tube

Day 82: Goodbye to Grammy

Today was starting out to be another day at work when Eric showed up in my office.  My mom sent him to let me know in person that Grammy had passed away early this morning.  It was an unexpected event and I quickly arranged for a sub for the next few days.

Eric and I packed up for the weekend and headed over to Mom and Alan's house.  The whole day was surreal - going back and forth between mourning and remembering various times with Grammy.  She had such a good life and influenced so many people.

Grammy, Ashley, me, and Mom at my bridal shower.

Day 81: Andrew's Home!

No more wires!  Andrew is free from his hospital hell!  He was able to nap without needing oxygen, hooray!  He was sent home with an albuterol nebulizer treatment that he has to have every morning, and an albuterol rescue inhaler for when his breathing gets raspy during the day.

 Eric looks super happy to be feeding Andrew!

Day 80: More Time at the Hospital

Today I was back to work, and Eric spent his day with Kris and Andrew.  He picked Kris up at the hospital and took him to his probation meeting in Lawrence.  They headed back to Olathe so Kris could take a real shower and Eric could ride the motorcycle.  Andrew was supposed to be released today, but his oxygen levels fell while Kris and Eric were out, and the doctors want him to nap without needing supplemental oxygen before he can go home.

Andrew really loves his Uncle Eric, and Eric had him in fits of laughter from shaking his poofy hair in his face.

Giggles from the prison!

Hair!

Day 79: KC Ren Fest 2010

Today marks the one year anniversary of Eric proposing to me!  We thought it would be great to go back to the same place to celebrate with friends and family.  Grammy, Papa, Matt, Connor, Chase, Cade, Kath, Zach, Belle, Paul, Deb, Brian, and Jen joined us for the fun!

Unfortunately, this was the last day that we got to spend with Grammy - as she passed away later this week.  I remember that she called to let me know they would be on time, which is always a miracle for Nicholsons!  They arrived right on time and Grammy was shooting pictures of everyone and having a great time with her dogs.  She and Papa had crepes for lunch and really enjoyed their day out.  Grammy bought one of the foldy wire bun holder for your hair, which I ended up taking and wearing to her memorial on Sunday.

Beyond our time spent with Grammy and Papa, we watched two of the jousting shows and spent most of our day enjoying looking at all of the shops!  Eric and I shared a turkey leg and had lunch with Paul, Deb, Brian, and Jen in a chapel, haha!  We also enjoyed some amazing candied pecans, and took a trip to the car for some cold Dr. Pepper and rum.  Eric ended up getting a "everything's better when you're having rum" t-shirt.

As we were leaving, we stopped off at the garden where Eric proposed and asked a stranger to take our picture.  He started jabbering at us in French, so I just motioned to take a picture and he nodded.  When we were done he said "Is this good?" and we were confused because now he was speaking English!  Apparently it was French and Hebrew, and he was a shop owner of a stone carving shop.  Because it was an anniversary for us, he carved us each a keychain with both of our names on it!

That evening Eric and I visited Kris and Andrew at the hospital - they unhooked his monitors and we got to take him on a walk outside!  Then we went to Mom and Alan's house and Eric had his first motorcycle ride with a passenger - me!  He did really great riding to his parents house, then up to Blackbob, over to 135th, down to Mur-Len and then home!  We didn't spend long out because a pretty rough storm was imminent.

On the bench where Eric proposed one year ago!

My keychain has my name in English and Eric's name in Hebrew.

The hair cage that Grammy bought for herself, and now it's mine.  She always liked fun hair bows, so this is a neat memento to have of hers.

Day 78: At The Hospital

Oops!  This morning I slept through church because my phone, which has my alarm on it, was in the living room overnight!  Ashley was a good sport about it and went to the service anyway, go her!

After I woke up, Eric had to take off for work as usual.  My nephew, Andrew, was admitted to the hospital on Friday for a bad cold that was causing him trouble breathing and keeping his blood oxygen levels up.  Kris was a trooper and spent the entire weekend at the hospital - I decided to go up to give him some company and see the poor baby all hooked up to monitors.

When I got there, Andrew had been sprung from his crib and the nurses were preparing to take him to the toy room.  So with the rolling monitor and plenty of cords in tow, we took him to a fun little play room.

I spent the next 12 or so hours with Kris and Andrew - Kris and I walked over to Crown Center for a break from the hospital (while Andrew was napping), then Ashley came for a few hours and we left her with Andrew while Kris and I got dinner for everyone at Wendy's.

 Andrew and all of his wires, they didn't stop him from playing!

These are all of the food toys that had to be washed because he chewed on 

It's really hard to change his diaper with all of the leads connected to him - he ended up getting away and showing off his bum.

They had a cool car that you could take the kids for a ride in.  Andrew looooved the red car!

Here he is nomming the kitchen toys - sad that they'll only give him formula, he tried to find real food!

It was Irish Fest at Crown Center, or something like that.  The fountains were green!

Kris had to test if they would dye his feet...it didn't.

Andrew hated his breathing treatments, it was really sad to watch!  He had to be held down while getting them.

His prison!  The bars slid up and another cover slid down so there was no way to escape!

He really liked the mirror in the play area!

There was a construction set with safety goggles that fit Andrew perfectly!

Kris became a pro at swaddling and getting Andrew to sleep - which was important because the nurses woke him up so often to check vitals!

Kris and I at Crown Center