Grandma Juelfs

We had a really sad and long week. My Grandma Juelfs died on Monday afternoon. I sure loved her, and she was the first grandparent I've lost. I feel so fortunate, though, that I was so close to all of my grandparents. I have tons of childhood memories with all of them. I also invited them to the kids' birthday parties, which Grandma Juelfs particularly enjoyed.

We drove to the farm on Tuesday night to spend some time with Dad, Tyann, Grandpa, Hope, and Frank. Then we went to Noah's concert in Correctionville.

Wednesday night I had to go through all of the kids' clothes (and mine) to try to find two nice outfits (one for the visitation and one for the funeral). Then I had to go do some frantic shopping to fill in what I didn't find in our closets. BA had offered to take the kids so that I could get the preparations done and have as little stress as possible. However, he took them to the stinking ballpark all night instead of getting anything done at home, so there was a little trouble that night. . .

Thursday night was the visitation at the Holstein funeral home. All of my aunt and uncles were there, and most of my cousins made it as well. It was so good to see everyone, as it had been several years since I'd seen some of them. There were bulletin boards and a dvd of lots of pictures of Grandma, and it really helped me to remember how she looked and acted through different stages of my life. BA certainly redeemed himself by chasing Sophie all over the place and keeping her out of my hair so I could deal with the situation. The three older kids had amazing behavior. After the visitation, we went and ate at the pizza place in Correctionville with Kate, Andy, and Ely. That Ely is so ridiculously cute and sweet, and his personality is starting to come through. He got some grins going to his daddy while we were eating.

Friday was the funeral. What a long, sad day. The funeral was very nice, and all of my cousins were there. Sophie was horrible, though! She would yell and growl at anyone who came up to her and acted nice or interested in her, and she mostly bawled and yelled all day long. She did not make a good impression on the relatives who hadn't even met her yet! BA had to sit in the van with her during the funeral service while I attended with the older kids. I was completely drained and stressed out from the emotions and from that darn Sophie being so difficult all day. It was great to see Ethan, Kelsey, Kaelyn, Andy, Kate, and Ely, but I sure wish we could have all gotten together under different circumstances. Since we had all three of the babies together for the first time, we took some pictures of the kids. I had matching monkey onesies for the three babies. Sophie has a square crying mouth in all of the pictures, which truly is an indication of the way the whole day went.

The week really took a toll on me. I was very roller-coaster-y with my grieving and my emotions and felt like I was too busy and stressed to properly grieve losing my grandma. We only had Sophie over the weekend (and she continued to be a shit - fighting her naps, yelling at us when she doesn't get her demands met, etc. - I don't think parenting toddlers is something you're cut out to do when you're almost forty years old.), so I had some time to decompress and process all of my emotions. We are going to go to the farm and cemetery on Memorial Day to spend some more time with Dad and Grandpa.