A Visit With Grandpa

The weekend seemed to come and go so quickly! My weekend was pretty busy and I got a lot of things done. I got my long run out of the way on Saturday then got my hair cut later that day. I did not cut it all off yet but one day soon I am hoping to get brave enough to do it! 

My grandpa's grave marker was finally finished and placed a couple of weeks ago so I took my grandma to see it on Sunday. We spent some time cleaning the marker and decorated it really nicely for him. I am sure he would have loved it. We just found out today that the cemetery changed the schedule for removal of the flowers and decorations so they will remove all of this on Tuesday. Bummer!

After the visit, we took Grandma to In N Out to eat a burger. She loves their burgers and she seemed really happy to be surrounded by family. My Sunday was a rest and recovery day so that is pretty much all that I did with the exception of about four loads of laundry! 

I also bought some snacks for my Ragnar Relay this weekend and started packing my bags. I also bought a pair of CEP reflective night running socks so I hope they arrive in time for Ragnar. I am a little bit nervous about running in the middle of the night but I only have to run 2.2 miles so I will be treating my second leg of the relay as speed work! I am trying not to over pack but sometimes I get carried away. This is what I have packed so far and I need to get busy since I don't have much time left!

How was your weekend? Did you do anything special?

Picking Up the Pieces and Losing $25,000

This is kind of way off topic from running but I am going to share it anyway. 

It has been almost two months since my grandpa passed away and it still hasn't really hit me. I am not in denial but I feel like I haven't really had a lot of time to really process it. I never realized how many things have to be done when a person dies. The last seven weeks of my life have been consumed with helping my grandma get her life back in order. I have been busy getting her Social Security benefits in order, removing him from bank accounts, and all of that good stuff. We have been running across so many things that she was looking for and some things that she did not know she had. I think the most shocking thing that we found was a $25,000.00 check dated back to 2006 that they never cashed. It turns out that the company that issued the check has since gone out of business and filed bankruptcy in 2009! I am still trying to figure out if there is any way for her to claim this money. I think I was more upset about it than she was because she could really use the money right now. My grandpa handled all of the finances and I am not sure how he passed this one up.

Even though all of his funeral arrangements were made in advance, we still spend lots of time signing paperwork and planning the arrangements. My grandma is 85 years old and this was just way too overwhelming for her so I kind of took the lead and just made sure she was on board with everything. Yesterday was kind of bittersweet because the proof for my grandparents memorial marker was emailed to me. Just seeing my grandpa's name on it just made me sad all over again. It was even worse to see my grandma's name on it with the date of her death left open. I don't even want to think of the day that the date is added.

I know that something good always come out of something negative and the death of my grandpa has brought my grandma and I even closer. She is now able to do things that she was not able to do in the past because she was always home taking care of grandpa. She was a very loyal wife and I will always respect her for that. We have spent time at the movies, we go out to dinner, and sometimes I just visit her and we sit on the couch together and just laugh about old times or just talk about life in general. She tells me the craziest things sometimes!

Her favorite thing to do now that my grandpa is gone is spend money at the grocery store. My grandpa used to limit her on what she could buy because she always had to have three of everything. I think she has ten of everything now. She loves to cook but I told her that she has to learn how to cook for just herself and not an army.

Any ideas on how my Grandma might be able to recover the $25,000?

I think it is a done deal but I am still hopeful for her.

A Birthday Celebration and a Busy Weekend

My one and only son turned 11 years old on Friday. He didn't want to go to school on his birthday and strongly believes that all students should be allowed to take a day off of school on their birthday. 

We did not grant his wish but made it a little better for him by offering to send donuts to school to celebrate his birthday. He was pretty excited about that and took the bait!

We took him out to dinner for his birthday to eat one of his favorite foods, BBQ. It is one of my favorites too so I had no objections! His sister brought him a mini cake from Cold Stone that we all helped him eat. We were stuffed and the food was so good!

He was also happy about the presents that he scored. He really wanted a new Rip Stik and was really excited about getting it! His birthday is so close to Christmas that he did not really as for much which is good for me :)

Aside from the birthday celebration, it was a really busy weekend which did not include much running (3.25 very slow miles to be exact.) I tried out my new Garmin for the first time and spent most of the run playing around it which resulted in a slow run. I will get back on track this week with my running.

Saturday included a visit to my Grandpas' grave site. It was the first time we went to visit him since he past away. My grandma still needed some time so we waited until she was ready. We took some chairs and sat out by his grave site and it was an absolutely beautiful day for it. After visiting Grandpa we took Grandma to the movies to see Zero Dark Thirty. It was a good movie and Grandma really liked it too. The movie was two and a half hours long and I actually stayed awake the entire time which is a sign that the movie is good.

Sunday was a lazy day. I cleaned house, did laundry and took care of some other things that I have been putting off around the house (like putting all of the Christmas decorations back in the storage closet.) My other half made dinner which included carne asada and rice. It was pretty good.

I am back to work today but do have a short week. I am scheduled to report to Jury Duty on Thursday and then I am off on Friday. I hope they do not select me to be on a jury since I have not heard anything exciting about it. I do not get Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a holiday which is tough when everyone else in the house got to sleep in this morning. The positive side of not getting today off is that traffic was super light this morning. I will take that any day!

Have you seen any good movies lately? 

I am not much of a movie person but Grandma has not been to the movies in quite a few years so we took her to keep her mind busy and spend some time with her.

Have you ever been selected to serve on a jury?
Was it interesting, boring, or better than going to work?
I have never been selected in my life and hope it stays that way. I don't want other people's future in my hands. 

Saying Goodbye is Never Easy

Last night we said goodbye to Grandpa. He passed away peacefully with all of us by his side. My Grandpa was a very proud man and was really unhappy with his life once the Parkinson's disease became so progressive. He was unable to do all of things that he wanted to do physically but mentally he was longing to do so much.

Grandma honored all of his wishes and was relieved to see him released from all of the pain and suffering that she had seen him going through for the past year. We knew it was his time when his breathing became very shallow and his breaths were far apart. When it was time, I called my Grandma to be by his side. She told him that she loved him and wanted him to go rest and she would be there to meet him one day.  It was at that moment that Grandpa took his very last breath. We will always love him and always remember him. He had a heart of gold and was always there for me and my family. I am so lucky to have had such a wonderful Grandpa in my life.

My son is taking it very hard. It is his, as well as my own, first experience with the death of a close relative. My son thinks that we made a mistake and that Grandpa is still alive.  He wants to go to the funeral home to check on him to make sure that he is not still breathing. It is hard to see my son like this but we continue to remind him of how much Grandpa loved him and how he will always be with us and we will see him again someday. We also remind him that Grandpa is now resting and is happy and pain free. He finds some comfort in knowing this.

We are waiting for some families member to arrive from out of state and will lay him to rest early next week. Please pray for my family as we say goodbye to him. It will be one of the hardest things that I have ever had to do but I know that I have to stay strong for my Grandma.

I love you Grandpa and I miss you so much! 

Life Has Been A Little Overwhelming Lately!

Life has been a little overwhelming lately to say the least. Family matters have kind of put lots of things on the back burner and I have been feeling really tired lately. My grandpa's health has taken a turn for the worst this past week and we have been dealing with one problem after another since Thursday night. He has Parkinson's disease and his mobility is gone and he pretty much has to spend all of his time in bed and he hates it! My grandma is 85 years old and has been trying to provide care to him but now that he is unable to walk or move very much, she can no longer do it. Please say a prayer for my grandpa as I am not sure how much longer he will be here with us. 

Running seemed to be getting back on track this week but with all of the sleepless nights and  helping out my grandpa, I was out of energy by the end of the week and did not get my long run done on Sunday as I thought I would. I ended up hitting the gym at the end of the day and could only get 6.5 miles out. I ended my week with 20.5 miles but family comes first and will always be my priority even though I love running. I was really close to hitting a 100 mile month but a combo of the rain and low energy levels were a bad mix! I can't really complain though because I was pain free this past week!

My tree is still sitting bare in the corner of my living room. My son keeps asking when we are going to decorate the tree but I have to remind him that taking care of grandpa has been tiring and I am out of energy. I am going to try to get the tree decorated this week since my living room is full of boxes of Christmas ornaments and all of the other decorations.

In other news, I had to buy these super cute Marathon Holiday socks from Pro Compression. I could not resist their cuteness and now I really want to run a holiday race but have yet to sign up for one.....

Are you all ready for Christmas? The tree is decorated and the shopping is done?

I plan to get all of that done this weekend if I can!