Hard to write

I have thought of starting a new post several times, but just didn't know where to begin. My Grandpa Blakemore died on Friday November 7th. It is always hard to wrap your mind around the fact that you won't see somebody again. I always have a hard time with living out East and away from family when things like this happen. Luckily Tami, Emily and I were able to get a flight together and fly home.
That Friday that he died was obviously a hard one for me. Even though I felt like curling in a ball and not dealing with anything for a while, I still had a lot of things that had to be done. I went in to Joseph's classroom because it was my turn to read. Then I went to the grocery store so that we could have dinner before all of the beehives and deacons came over for a movie game night. I did lock myself in my room once all of MY kids were taken care of. I let Steve deal with all of the extraneous children at my house. The next few days were a flurry of activity as I had to get everything ready for my leaving on Tuesday. I had to teach RS on Sunday and get as much of the plans for Enrichment done before I left. I then of course needed to find child care, make a menu, get groceries, write out a schedule for all of the kids, and get myself ready to leave. I thought that it was about as busy as it could be until my mom called and asked if I would speak at the funeral on behalf of all the grandchildren. By the time that we left on Tuesday I think I was almost certifiable.
The great thing was that I got to spend time with my family. The funeral was wonderful. It was such an honor to speak about my grandfather, but it was also one of the hardest things that I have ever had to do. He had 16 grandchildren and 21 great grandchildren. The best part of the trip was playing games and laughing with my cousins and especially Grandma. She is very competitive and so doesn't like to lose. I laughed so hard I thought I would pee my pants when she told Melanie to "shut up".
I have such a great family. I did finish planning for Enrichment which was last night (that will be a separate post unto itself) One thing that I have definitely walked away from these past few weeks is that I have so much to be thankful for. It is the simple things in life that really do matter and I have enough simple things to make a whole lot of great things.