A Random Saturday

In the early morning--while John was sleeping--I went to help a friend of mine who lost her mom. Kathy-of-the-mom-bows and I worked alonside Mimmie and her son at sorting things to get the house ready to sell. Mimmie has been working on this since October and now is down to the end of things. It is a difficult and emotional process to work through the memories of a lifetime reflected in clothing and objects. Especially when the person was as vibrant and engaging as Mimmie's mom.

One of the startling things Mimmie ran across in her mom's closet was a box with the remains of her grandmother. This is the fourth friend I know who has cremated remains that they aren't sure what to do with in their closet. I've decided if loved ones want to be cremated, then they need to give instructions on what to do with the ashes. I don't want indecision on my part of the "right thing" and a powerful dose of not wanted to deal with it keeping them in my closet for years.

Note to Chase and Bethany: Dig a hole. Put the ashes in. Plant a tree. Seriously.

I met John back at the house at noon (after I found homes for all of Mimmie's mom's plants) and we dragged Bethany and her friend off to lunch and Walmart, where I happened across one of those huge dresser-type jewelry boxes in the clearance aisle at a killer price. (John had to load it and take it back to the house, then come back for the girls and I and the rest of the groceries because the trunk of the car was loaded with computer stuff and we all wouldn't fit.)

The afternoon was spent cleaning and doing laundry. (I even got in a bit of a nap.) Then we had an early dinner with Samantha (John's mom) and Roy at Uncle Julios, home of the best fajitas in Dallas (veg for me) and all of our family celebrations. When we came back to the house we introduced Sam and Roy to Wii Bowling. John, teased his mom by making her character really short. Of course, there was a lot of laughing and cheers. John won the game, but Roy was a close second.

They left pretty early, since they had a long drive back to Keene, and I decided I wanted dessert, so we called up Troy and Rhonda (BIL/SIL) at the last minute and met them at a restaurant called Celebrations on Lovers Lane that has the most amazing homemade pies and deserts. (Really, truly and deeply AMAZING. And the coffee was fabulous too. Mmmm...)

I love hanging out with Troy and Rhonda. The relationships crafted through years of shared experience and genuine love are at their best when the moments are casual. At one point, John and Troy were discussing the viability of shooting all of the waste of defunct computer monitors (a giant landfill issue) into the sun via rail gun. Which morphed into a discussion on whether or not nuclear waste could be viably disposed of in the same way. Which morphed into Marvin the Martian impressions--at which John is really, really good. Which morphed into speculation of whether or not there are volcanoes on the sun. At which point I started laughing because they'd both totally lost the plot.

The day ended as John and I try to end every day these days. We prayed together. Both of our prayers were filled with just "Thank you, God." Uneventful Saturdays full of family and friends are gifts. I'm glad I got to blog this one so it doesn't just slip by forgotten.