On Friday morning I got a call from Mom saying that Grandpa had fallen and broken his leg. By the end of the work day Mom called back and said that he had gone into surgery and when he came out his heart was weak and he had a heart attack and was going back in to surgery. She cautioned me that they may need to leave if it did not go well.
I didn't want them to stay for us coming out so I told them that we could meet them in Kearney. Dad said he was going to wait to see how the surgery went before deciding anything and said we could change course if needed, so we headed on out to Mom and Dad's.
I called Mom on the way and she hesitated. I could tell she was going to tell me something. When she didn't, I could tell it was not good. When we arrived she told me that Grandpa had passed. I knew that with his conditions a broken leg and surgery would not be good. He had a broken hip a couple years ago and it didn't turn out too great. Even though I was thinking it might not go well it still wasn't easy to handle.
Grandpa had been a big part of my fishing life and a huge influence on me as a person. When I was young we used to camp as a family all the time. Grandpa would take us out fishing or skiing the whole time we were at the lake. A few moments stick out more than others. One time we were trolling and I had fallen asleep holding my pole. My line tightened and I woke up thinking I had a fish. When I got my line in, I saw that I had hooked another lure. It was a purple hot-n-tot. To my memory I have never used that hot-n-tot. It is in a tackle box with all the lures with special memories to me. I need to put them in a display case with the stories of why they are special.
I have a lot of wonderful memories of Grandpa and no bad memories. He would do anything for anyone in the family. He was a very caring and generous person. I will miss spending time with him and will cherish my memories of all the time I did get to spend with him.
Saturday morning Mom and Dad left to help Grandma prepare for the funeral. We left to go back home.
Sunday morning I woke up to a text message from my banks fraud department asking if I had made any purchases that morning. I pulled up my bank account on my computer and sure enough somebody had been making purchases using my card information. I called the bank to let them know that I hadn't purchased anything. They told me they were shutting down my card and would get another sent to me as well as reimburse the monies that had been spent on those transactions. Almost 2 weeks later I have not seen my new card or my money.
I am 85% sure that the guy at JC Penny's that looked extra long at my card the day before is the culprit that has caused me so much grief the last two weeks.
All the travel that was to follow was made even tougher without having a debit card.
The funeral was on Wednesday so we left Tuesday around noon to drive 5 hours to where the funeral was to be held. Wednesday we had the funeral. It was nice to spend time with family. After living in Ohio for the last 7 years, I had missed getting to see many of the family.
We drove back after the funeral. Thursday I had to play catch up at work and put in a huge day from 8AM until 2:30AM the next morning. I went home for a few hours of sleep before I had to take off again for the BFL tournament at Lake Eufala.
Sunday after the lake Eufala tournament I got up for a couple hours, then laid back down for a 7 hour nap. I got up long enough to drive home from OKC, then went back to bed. The previous week had taken it's toll on me.
Life is starting to feel somewhat normal again. We will still be busy as usual. Leo's soccer started this week. We have practice 2 days a week and a game. The last couple season's have really helped him. It feels good to watch him and see that he is the more experienced player on the team. He really listened to the guy that was working with him yesterday. He showed Leo why it's better to kick with the inside of your foot rather than your toe. "I have been trying to work with Leo for 2 years on that by the way." Leo listened and started kicking correctly. He has a lot of power and is starting to get some finesse in his game. As much as I disliked soccer before, I enjoy watching him play.
This weekend we are sticking around town. There is a bike race and an easter egg hunt. Leo has been waiting on this bike race for a year now since he saw or heard about it last year. It wouldn't surprise me if he decided to take the training wheels off his bike because of this race.
Last week, Christina decided to air up his tire. She put a lot too much air in and the tube blew up. Leo was deeply upset by this. We told him we could get a new tire. When Leo heard the bike race was this weekend he demanded that we go to walmart that night to get a new tube for his tire. We went to walmart.
The boys drive me nuts all the time with the little things they do. Last night they spilled what seemed like a bucket full of water out of the bathtub. I was HOT. I get mad when they get a small amount on the floor. A fish could have swam around in this puddle. HOT. Other times they melt my heart. They show that they really have been listening all along and do what they are supposed to do. I know. I should have had robots instead of kids. The good things wouldn't mean as much if they didn't do all those bad things I guess.
I'm a pretty strict parent. I want my kids to try to do the right thing all the time. They may grow to resent me some from it, but if it makes them a better person, so be it. I also let them see me love them. I probably look like a bi-polar monster to them sometimes. I feel like it sometimes. They drove me to it.
I have been putting a lot of hours in at work the last few months and have not spent a lot of time at home. I have a lot of projects finished now so I will be trying to spend more quality time with my family. It's going to start by cleaning the house. Most of the kids toys have got to go. Nothing says quality time like telling a kid he's got to pick which toys he wants to keep and then only letting him keep a few of those.
There will be a garage sale coming soon in Kiowa, KS. The boys are already without cable. If they have very few toys, maybe they will respect what they have and take care of it. If not, there's lots of sticks in the yard for them to play with. I don't mind if those get broken.
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