Day 302: Where my people at?

Ok, enough is enough.  I'm done being home.  We all are done being home.  I haven't seen a single other adult (except through Facetime) since Tuesday.  So since it was so beautiful, we opted to go to the park this evening for a few minutes.  But I still felt queasy and Keturah didn't really want to be there, so we didn't stay long.  Abishai was upset though.  He desperately needed to see people.  Glad we came home when we did because he had a poop explosion shortly afterward.  Yes, you needed to know that because it was epic.  He almost needed another bath.  Anyway....

Mouse was still loose last night, and I saw it crawl out from under my bed while I was in bed, so I opted to sleep in another room.  It's grossing me out and I've been on the lookout for it all day along every baseboard and corner I pass.  Traps are set and I did put some peppermint oil on some paper towels and spread them around my room to deter the mouse or mice.  I have lived in a few places that were just as cluttered or worse than my home, and I've never encountered mice before.  It's just all the unpredictability of running around that scares me.  I don't mind seeing them in cages or even holding a rodent.  So enough is enough of that.

What else? I've been incredibly lazy and didn't do anything spectacular today.  No school except a little typing for Justin.  We did take showers.  We did eat.  We got outside.  We are alive.  I don't want to say much else because I've had a kind of all over the place emotional day.  Maybe because my friends had a party for another one of my best friends who just moved into a new home and I wanted to be there.  I would have been there.  But instead, I'm here.  I'm here and am awaiting the arrival of a few friends coming to Indy for a church conference.  But I think that might start some tears flowing, too.  Plus, Halloween.  I hate Halloween.  The kids haven't even asked this year why we don't celebrate it.  If it was just the fairy princesses or superheroes maybe, just maybe I could participate.  But since so much of it is blood and gore and death and horror, I just cannot.  There are some great costumes.  I love cosplay costumes.  (Dressing up as your favorite TV/comic book/story character/video game, etc. character).  There's a lot of creativity.  But death, well, is death.  So, let it be written in the anals of our history, we don't do Halloween.  I think on Monday at co op I'll say, "Happy Reformation Day!" instead.  Because Martin Luther nailed his 99 Theses to the church doors on October 31st.  And without Martin Luther, and others, we wouldn't have the Protestant Reformation and our Protestant churches.  So, Happy Reformation Day everyone!

Time to go home she said.

HUGE maple leaf Canadians!

A mushroom!

I started working on a simple little project of finding pictures of our family to add to our 20th century timeline which was suggested on a podcast or in our history book or something.  I'm just doing us and the grandparents on both sides.  I actually make comments about how old say, Grandpa Howell was when JFK was shot.  Or how I was in 4th grade in Operation Dessert Storm and our class wrote to soldier in Iraq.  Well, I don't have many photos of my parents in the right places, so I have to go searching each time I want to do something like this.  And when I do, I go down memory lane, again, and find pictures like those below.  Most days I'm ok and have "moved on" from my parents' deaths, but today is not one of those days.  

This was a couple of weeks before my mom passed from cancer.  From left to right is "Big Brother" Eddie, who is maybe 10 years older than I, but similar in age to my half brother my mom gave up for adoption at birth.  Therefore, he and another guy, became like sons to my mom.  Gloria, who used to live on the same street as us and whose kids would wander down to our house just because.  Her youngest daughter Joy came with her.  My sister Stefanie, me, my Mom, Linda, and my dad, Stephen.  It's hard to imagine that my parents only knew 3 (and a half since Stefanie was pregnant with her son "Auggie" Augstin) out of 7 of their grandchildren.  They would be so proud of all of us today and loved my 3 older kids fiercely and couldn't wait for more!  Oh how I miss my parents some days!

This is the cemetery that they are buried in in Hooksett, NH, where we spent most of our childhood.  It's tiny, because the town is small, too.  It's surrounded by trees, a brooke, and a 200 year old stone fence from colonial days.  I bet it looks more like the pictures of the trees I took today with it's fall colors.  Within the next few weeks, their headstone will finally be placed.  Because of so much change in our families in the past 5 and 6 years, we just couldn't seem to find the time to finalize the details.  But the stone has been ordered and should be installed before winter.  My sister Stefanie designed most of it.  I can't wait to show you!

And there you have it.  Just as another mouse runs across the floor from inside my closet.  They must think I'm Cinderella or something.  I am not.  Sigh.