Celebrating Life

We gathered with family and friends to celebrate Aunt Doll, while we had tears we also had laughter, people telling stories and sharing their memories and why we loved her like we do, how she will be missed and lessons that she taught us (my aunt Robyn agrees "No Elbows on the Table is one we all learned by being stabbed with a fork! "
I created a memories video to be played while we were at the funeral home, saved it in on a DVD just like the "tech guy" told me to do on the phone! So MP (Mama Pepper) and I arrived early, to set out the programs that PC and I made the night before, set up the photos we had and of course to make sure there were no problems with the video. The nice young man came bounding down the stairs in his 3 piece suit to introduce himself, Micheal " I thought he looked like he was 10 playing dress up ~ but he took the video and raced back up the stairs to get it hooked up. After a few minutes he comes back bouncing down to say "You did a great job on this, it's really very nice , but....we cant play it" Pretty sure my eyes flying out of their socket and the expression on my face were enough for him to "figure something out" as he raced yet again up stairs to see "what he could do"!
 UGHHHHHHHHHH are you kidding me??? I saved it in the format he told me to!! Anyways bouncing back down with his laptop he fiddled a bit and then it appeared on the screen as peo
ple were entering...minus the music...ughhh ...okay, at least we have pictures right!
Well as time passes we notice there is a black screen again, I go in search to find the little whipper snapper in the 3 piece suit......to get told he has left for the day. WTF~ seriously and the ancient man at the door tells me that yes, he said the screen would go black and that he would just shut the TV off! ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? But then he adds in "This happens a lot you know" UMMM okay well that doesn't make me feel any better!
So I go back in and start talking to a few people to announce that our "Tech Guy left" I dunno maybe he had to be in before his 6pm curfew??? UGHHHH so we start to look around, the laptop in on the floor behind the coffin..... well I don't want to crawl back there! One of our guest , while I wont mention any names, because I really need my eye examine done, hopped on back there to see if he could get it to play. I had visions of us bumping the coffin and off it would fly, I mean Aunt Doll really enjoyed a good party, but she may have been annoyed with that turn of events! Maybe Aunt Doll sabotaged it herself so it wouldn't play!
Wednesday morning was the service and it was beautiful. My Papa was sitting up there in the front pew with my aunts and I, MP sat behind us and so did one of my uncles (Papa's brother). While the priest started with the smoke in the ball thingy that sparked a memory that Papa couldn't keep to himself! So he turns around in this quiet mass and says to my uncle "Remember when we were alter boys and we had the smoke going everywhere?" MP is poking him in the back to shhh, and my uncle is shaking his head as my Papa continues to start laughing and saying how they would swing it over their head and then they were on the floor" my uncle pipes in that his memory is to good, and I lean over and tell him we are going to be kicked out if he doesn't pipe down!! He just continues to laugh, as I join in , and MP keeps poking him to be quiet!
The funny thing is Aunt Doll would have expected that from him ~ so she would not have been surprised as her little brother was sitting in a quite mass as he starts laughing and telling stories! At the after party everyone that was in the back came up and wanted to know what was the ruckus he had going on up front, they could here him laughing from the back of the church! They were always the life of the


Aunt Doll and My Papa
 The Best of Friends

party! They have lived together the last few years and enjoyed Happy Hour and having a Speaker Phone! LOL ~ Oh yes, while they enjoyed a glass of wine or a vodka martini they would be on the phone to hear about everyone's day, they would have you on speaker while they would laugh and talk away! They both always have such great stories to tell!
Yes, we had tears but we also had laughter as we celebrated Aunt Doll's life, it really was a celebration of life and we all were lucky that we were able to share in that life!


P.S. And yes PC came to the celebration, and yes he was in his brown shirt and green hoody, no one seemed to notice they were all focused on how much HAIR he had, and how thick it was ~

Never Never Land

So the past few days my conversation with Mama Pepper (now dubbed as MP) went a little like this.....
Friday night : MP ~ "Have you told him yet?"
ME~"No, not yet"
Saturday morning: MP ~ "Have you told him yet?"

Always with a smile and
 always ready for a party!

ME~"No, not yet"
Saturday night: MP ~ "Have you told him yet?"
ME~"No, not yet"
**Okay so repeat the above for Sunday and Monday until Monday night when it changes to
MP ~ "Have you told him yet?"
ME~"No, not yet"
MP: "Cutting it kind of close aren't you? We are down to the wire you know"
ME~" Yep I sure am"

Well I finally bit the bullet tonight and told PC that Aunt Doll had passed away ~ I KNOW.... I KNOW.....yes I am a wimp and yes this happened 4 days ago and I dunno maybe I thought I could just avoid the conversation and go on my merry little road trip called denial, avoid it much like I did the seating chart for our wedding!!!!

He actually did take it better than I thought he would, plus he's been sick (yes still sick.. ..heading back to the doctors tomorrow - and the hubster is sick and now ...oh yes they gave me their germs too .......ughh) and I just wasn't ready to deal with the drama that I predicted. Clearly I should be a weather girl - they don't have to get anything right ~ he handled it alot better than I expected.

 I have to admit that I also may have tried to bribe/coax him with going shopping for a NICE OUTFIT to wear to her celebration of life party ~ sounded better than a funeral right??  Yes shameless of me I have no doubt, but thought just maybe...........he would see the light and agree ......I got a head nod with that.........but then the brakes came to a screeching halt and he looked up and said....."What do you mean when when you say nice clothes?"

Then that little theme song  for the game shows pops in my head... you know the one before someone hits the buzzer to answer the question...... while I try to plan my next sentence as to NOT say something like "Well certainly not anything BROWN.....like your brown frigging shirt". I played it cool with a shrug of the shoulders and casually said...."Oh I don't know, maybe some nice dress pants ( and screaming in my head was because you dont own a pair of friggen long pants) and maybe you can borrow one of dads nice dress shirts, he has some that are really soft" ...got another head nod and a "hummm I don't know". So I guess I will have to wait and see what he decides to do..........


I reminded PC of what he use to tell me when he was 3 years old and my grandmother passed away, he would look right up at the sky and say "Mama dont be sad, Great Grammy is up there in Never Never Land with Peter Pan and Captain Hook."

When the hubster's father passed away and PC was 5, I was looking for the right words to say when  he looked at me as he smiled and
said " P-Pa went to Never Never Land to? Don't worry mama he'll be okay! Now he's with Peter Pan and Great Grammy".

Yep - so there we have it Aunt Doll is now in Never Never Land with Peter Pan, Captain Hook and all the others that have passed before her! PC gave me a hug and a grin as he walked away shaking his head.

She has her wings

On Friday March 22nd we said good bye to my Great Aunt Doll I wrote about her in November when she first had her stroke, which she never recovered from.  As Mama Pepper said "She has her wings now", I know she is no longer suffering and she is at peace and she is not alone in the great blue sky, but all the same it still leaves that empty ache in your heart.

She really was an amazing, wise, classy, strong, honest and  funny woman who taught all of us in her life a thing or two or a million life lessons! Aunt Doll was the godfather of this family and the glue that holds us all together.She never missed a good party and always had a smile on her face! The world would be a better place if we had more people in it like her.  She taught me not to have my elbows on the tables. That lesson was learned by a fork flying across the table as she jabbed you in the elbow and said" Elbows off the table", pretty sure to this day, I do not eat with my elbows on the table!!!

For my wedding she was insistent that I would have to do a seating chart, that we needed to get it done or there could be trouble with where people sat!SERIOUSLY?? Like I had time to plan that out!!  I of course bring the soon to be bride, who  was much to busy to do that,   balked back that "People wont sit next to people they don't like! " Every time the subject came up about that seating chart I would avoid it like the plague! Fast forward to that glorious day and that is where you find my Papa (grandfather ~ who happened to be Aunt Doll's younger brother) and there he sat.....in between his two Ex-wives!!! While not everyone was amused with his sitting arrangement, he found it to be quite funny!Papa much like Aunt Doll always enjoy a good time, and can be the life of the party!  Besides the sitting chart, my other no -no in her book was when the hubster and I were feeding each other cake....yep pretty sure he can still smell it since I jammed it up his nose! Aunt Doll was saying "OH PEP...OH PEP" as she was wiping the cake from my chest and face!! Of course by the end of the night I was dancing on the top of the speakers and had money coming out of the top of my dress....which makes this one of my favorite pictures of me and Aunt Doll (even if I look crazy in it)! Because even with her laughter and shaking her head she continued to say "Oh Pep...Oh Pep" and when ever I see this picture it makes me giggle!

I receive a lot of "Oh Pep....Oh Pep" in my life from Aunt Doll this stood for the good, the bad, the ugly, the funny, the crazy or the WTF...(even thou I never heard her utter those words out loud I have NO DOUBT she has thought them)! It was her standard statement to me and I can hear it echo in my head. She didn't judge my parenting skills when PC and I stayed with her in the mountains and he held up the yellow squash and announced that "them are some funny looking bananas and that was some awful lettuce (which happened to be a head of cabbage)." She loved to see the pictures of my latest craft or crazy mud run, she was always interested in what was happening in my life and was always proud of me.

 But as I sit here now thinking of the days ahead of us..............I could really use an "Oh Pep...Oh Pep" right about now, while I know that she understands that my little gem  is a tough cookie to raise and has issues with the whole ADD,ODD and OCD....and that yes he has been in a brown shirt since xmass- I cant help but wonder what others will think if I take him with me to the service, I can feel the judging eyes as they all gawk and stare, but I can hear her in my head saying "Oh Pep....it's okay, dont worry about what he has on" hummmm do you think anyone else could hear her saying that to me??

SNOTTY NOSE

I thought about doing a "Wordless Wednesday" blog post and just post this picture and see if you could figure out WTF is wrong with it!!! Notice the chicken noodle soup boxes, the bottles of couch medicine, the antibiotics, the tubes for PC's nebulizer machine for breathing treatments...oh yeah...and the big FRIGGEN lollipop??? REALLY??? Yep- lets trade a visit with the doctor for a visit to the dentist!! The poor hubster would buy the kid a rocketship if he thought it would make him better!

Needless to say PC is sick, not that we have an official diagnose of what it is !!!It could be viral, could be flu and without a doubt it is the croup. In 3 days we have had 2 trips to the emergency room (oh and for the record NOPE they dont offer BOGO on that), one to the pediatrician, several trips to the pharmacy and well it ain't getten any better............. Gee would that be because he wont take the F-ing $100 plus worth of med's we had to get!! He points, grunts  and moans which is apparently sign language for it hurts to swallow..... pointing to the coffee table is the sign for get me something off the table, because clearly he is to weak to get off his ass and get it when it is only 2 feet out of his reach!

 I do feel sorry for him,I know it sucks to be sick!! But I feel sorry for  the hubster and me to............ as we are all clearly suffering the effects of the "could be's". The hubster can not handle the hacking cough PC has, never has been able to, he is on night 3 of going into the office at 8pm working until like 2am than he comes home and sleeps in the truck until I go and wake him at 7ish in the morning!!! I know PC doesn't feel good, but I think he is overly dramatic to the point I am right over the edge!! And if I peel another snotty, booger filled tissue of the coffee table instead of in his "barf bucket" I just might start to scream!!!

I am getting a glimpse of what his future wife may experience and I am sure I will have to make sure she does not have access to any firearms or shovels!!!

Security and me

So last weekend I went on a short girl's weekend away and went to my girlfriends in Texas! Yep that's right....no hubster and no PC, pretty sure the hubster was a tad worried I'd miss my RETURN flight home!

Well really I almost missed the flight there! I had a 6:30am flight to catch got to the airport with plenty of time, only had a over night bag so no need to check it! Then I get to security  and the line came to a screeching halt, as they yelled at us over and over ( really felt like I was in kindergarten and not stayen in a straight line) geeezzz we get it already!!! Take your shoes off, laptops out of the bag in a separate bin, any liquids must be out and in the bin, everything outta your pockets....over and over and over they yelled this warning!! Tick tock - tick tock ....finally it's my turn, I do a double pat - nope I'm good nothing in my pockets to get the scanner ringing!! In I got, arms up ......the green light scans and the lady tells me to step out and wait here....WTF? What?? She has me spread my legs, hold out my arms, takes her wand and scans me again!!! ARE YOU KIDDEN?????? Then she presses on my shoulder and pushed and says "What's that?" HUH??? Uh my bra strap! That's when I hear it , as she sends me on my way to grab my stuff over the loud speaker they announce MY NAME and that it was the FINAL BOARDING!!! OMG!! WTF??? I grab my shit and run, good thing I do all those races and pretend to be in shape especially since my gate was of course the last freaking one in the freaking airport!!!!!! I come flying around the corner with shoes and hand as she is getting ready to close the gate, almost barf from running so lighting fast!!! "Wait, wait I was being fondled by security!!!"

Ahhhhhhhhhh finally on the plane, even got to sit in the front row ~ the guy said no at first he had to wait until everyone was on the plane, I informed him that yes indeed we were all here, as they were closing the gate on me!! On we go to Atalanta where I have a change plane. Things were pretty uneventful there, until I boarded the plane, took my seat which was way in the back near the window and then he arrived. The man in the next seat...or should I say the man who took up his seat and half of mine!!! Seriously, he puts the arm rest up, sits down all spread eagle and to make this so much more uncomfortable he stinks!!! Like eyes are watering stinks!!! Too close for comfort stinks!!! It was the stinky smell of cigarettes, sweat and just plain stinky!! The kid behind him was kicking his seat when he spun around and screamed at him and his mother to stop it! I nearly jumped outta my seat but I was pretty trapped and it was a full flight! So he proceeds to take out his blow up pillow, almost whacks me in the face as his big ol arms are flappen around to position it!! SERIOUSLY?? First security and now the stinky giant with a freaking pillow!!! I would say to myself...just breathe just breathe....but really ~ I'd need a gas mask if I started inhaling big deep breaths!!!

So what I found in the bathroom in Texas really gives a whole new meaning to "Woman go to the bathroom in pairs"?? Really I don't even know what to say about that one?? Some how I think my bladder my get stage fright if that's the case! I'm just glad there was a lock on the door! It was a great trip - that was the only strange bathroom I encountered! But really it was worth taken a pix of it!!!

My flight home was rather uneventful, other then security telling me I had to remove my hoody....Guess its a damn good thing I have something on under my hoody eh??? I'm starting to think maybe I should just go through security naked! This time I picked a isle seat on the plane ~ other then the lady that whipped out her Clorox bottle of wipes and proceeded to wipe everything down before she sat on the other side of the isle it went pretty smooth! The germy lady did get a rather dirty look when her seat mate came and she got up to let her in ....and yep....started the whip down process again! .

So the good news is I made it home and wasn't detained by security or anything! And the boys had a great time with a boys weekend ~ which involved PC not removing his ass from the computer or video games!! Humm pretty much sounds like when I am home only with all the nagging!