A weekend of mixed blessings

It was a fun and adventurous weekend, but one filled with some sadness for me personally.

Always best to start with the fun part, so.... We went to the Winter's house this Saturday and celebrated P-man's 10th birthday for a short while. It was fun, and he got a pretty cool dinosaur that Ty was very intrigued with. After that we headed out to Bothell to meet up with T&T, Camie, and her family. We went to go see Santa fly in, so that we could get Ty excited about X-mas. Got there and shopped around a bit (found Ricky some much needed fudge) and then walked down to a Mexican restaurant to kill time till about 7pm when Santa was expected. It was fun spending time with the family, as always, but when Santa flew in and got up on stage to give his speech he started talking about how he has "played Santa for 57 years". Luckily Ty can't understand that yet, but what a bummer to hear for all those other little kids. You could hear the parents all making up similar stories about how this Santa is just helping the real Santa as he gets ready for Christmas. That was it for us though, we headed on out after that. It was fun never the less, and Ty had his fill that day, as you could see when he conked out in the car ride home.

Sunday was a little bit different of a mixed blessing. The family woke up early together (I think Ty was still stimulated from the day before), we ate some oatmeal, sat down and watched a movie together, and then it was my time for me to take off and head to a friends memorial. I have been very very lucky in life, and have lost very few people close to me, and I think this one hit home the hardest. One of my mentors at work, the person who I say was the key player in getting me where I am today and building my confidence to be able to tolerate it, passed on Tuesday the 2nd from stomach cancer. We hadn't talked a huge amount in the past year or so, as we both got busy with work, but did keep in touch. I knew she had gotten sick, but had no idea it had become as bad as it was. The memorial was very special, and I can only hope that mine is as filled with love as her was when my day comes (hopefully MANY MANY years from now). Marianne touched so many people, including myself, and while hearing their stories was sad, it helped me realize she lived every moment of her life to the fullest, and I can only hope for the same.

As strange as it may sound, being there inspired me to seek out some of my own religion. I think it will bring some peace to my overwhelmed, some what negative mind, and help me to start to see all the positives rather then constantly focusing on the negatives and trying to "make myself better" when I don't even know what, if anything, is wrong with who I am.

After the memorial we went and had dinner and watched Wall-E at Trevor and Tamara's, and that helped bring my heart back to peace and happiness, rather then remorse, which was nice. I really love having them close to me, and I am glad that is where Ricky was when I called on my way home. I deeply love all of my family, and am thankful for them everyday! Life would be a heck of a lot harder with out them there backing me up! Ricky was very helpful as we drove home too, understanding that I haven't been through as much of this sadness as he has, and he offered me more understanding, which was really nice!