It is mid-March already...yikes!

Wow! It has been a long time since my last post, so I have some catching up to do!

The last post was right as I was getting ready to leave for Hilton Head Island, SC to visit my grandmother. I am soooooooo glad that I went! It was so hard to see my grandmother post-stroke...yet, she didn't look like what I had prepared myself for. I guess we always prepare ourselves for the worst. My father (who lives in Minnesota and was still in SC visiting) picked me up from the airport and took be to the rehab hospital where my g'ma was staying (my mother was waiting with my g'ma in the hospital - my g'ma is my mother's mother). I entered g'ma's room and she took my hand in her left, held it to her face and cried..."oh, Lisa." She squeezed my hand while she cried and cried and cried. Not normally a crier, it was hard to see my grandmother show this emotion. But my hearts swelled up and I squeezed her hand, laid my head on her chest...kissed her...talked to her and so on. After a few minutes, the tears did stop flowing as I began to catch her up on all the stuff going on in my household. Within a few more minutes, I had her laughing as I told her about my boys and all there nonsense. When it was time to leave that evening, again she took my hand in her "good" left hand and squeezed, bringing it up to her face as she cried. She looked into my eyes and said, "Lisa, my first, you are here." I responded..."yes grandma, I am here. I love you!" Then with a kiss to her cheek, I said, "you get some rest. I will be back in the morning. Good night." and I left the rehab hospital with my mother and father.

I stayed Thursday, March 1 through Sunday, March 4. My father left on Friday, so the rest of the weekend I not only had time with my grandmother but quality time with my mother, which I haven't had in a very long time. Due to my g'ma having therapy from 9am-3pm, we weren't allowed to visit until the late afternoon so I fell into my mother's routine of getting our exercise completed in the morning, a late breakfast and then the drive to the hospital. My mother and I took some nice long walks on the beach as well as around my grandmother's neighborhood (we stayed at my grandma's house). My mother was able to share with me her thoughts and feelings as she was dealing with seeing her mother go from a independent person to one who now needed to depend on others. The hardest thing for all of us to deal with isn't really the fact that grandma's right arm is paralyzed or she is having trouble moving her right leg/foot without help...it is the fact that she lost control of her speech. My 93 year old grandmother's brain is working great and she has some wonderful things to say...but the stroke affected her speech, which...for the lack of a better word...SUCKS!

Anyway, I left Sunday 3/4 in the afternoon. Upon saying good-bye to my grandmother, through her tears she was able to get out, "Thank you for coming. I appreciate it. I love you." Again, I am so glad that I got out there and visited. I hope to get out there again in the near future.

Just a quick update. Since I left Hilton Head, a bed opened up in a beautiful skilled nursing facility which is just a few miles away from her neighborhood. Grandma's crying and sadness lessened with this move according to my mother. Grandma will continue to have physical and speech therapy, but is in a very nice and social atmosphere...and closer to where her friends live. My mother is going back home to Minnesota today and my 2 uncles (her brothers) will be arriving in Hilton Head on Friday. So there will be a continuous presents of family right now.

Speaking of Uncles...one of the uncles (my mother's younger brother) came out to California last weekend. He stayed at my house for a few days prior to going into San Fran for a business conference. It was great to have him here! DH and I were able to take some time off from the store on Saturday...and the boys didn't have any hockey...so we drove out to Half Moon Bay and had a great day.

After a meal at Sam's Chowder House, we hiked all over the rocky shore of the Pacific Ocean as the tide was going out.

A rare photo of my family - from left to right: Me, Robert, Matthew and Steve

Matthew, Uncle Doug and Robert

Looking into the cracks and crevasis of the rocky shore, where we would see Sea Anemone, star fish and tons of hermit crabs. We also spied some California seals and Harbor seals napping on the rocks as well as frolicking in the waves.

Not only was the sea life fun to watch, but the flowers and foliage around the ocean was beautiful to view.

We must have walked around that shoreline for over 4 hours for the tide started to come in around 4:30pm. So we decided it was time to go on home. Sunday morning, my uncle got a taste of what it is like to work in *The Store*. He went with me to prep fruit and make an early morning arrangement for a customer who needed to pick it up at 9am, which is an hour before we typically open on a normal Sunday. Uncle Doug learned to skewer strawberries, as well as dip them in chocolate. He was a fast learner, but felt the need to taste a few chocolate dipped fruits before I could put them on the arrangement...chocolate dipped strawberries, chocolate dipped bananas and apples. Nice Sunday breakfast, I guess. Once the customer picked up her arrangement, my Uncle and I went for coffee and had some time to visit...something that we haven't done in a long time!

Well, inbetween all this travelling and visiting I have managed to put a few X's into Family Sampler and I even have a photo to prove this. You will have to forgive me though, it is a phone photo as my camera really doesn't want to work...and I didn't take time to take the sampler off the hoop. But, at least I get to post a picture, right?

Since the last photo posting of my Family Sampler, I have added:

• Bruno, the dog - Bruno is our 10 year old "mutt". We purchased him from a rescue facility when we lived in Minnesota. He was 8 weeks old when we got him.
• Chester, the cat - Chester is no longer with us. He came into our lives before Steve and I were married. Steve found Chester at the grain elevator he was working at the summer between our Junior and Senior year of college. Chester came to college and lived in Steve's apartment that senior year and then moved to New Orleans with him after graduation. I "adopted" Chester when we got married a year later. It was husband, wife and cat for several years when we lived in New Orleans; however, when we moved up to Minnesota Chester went to live on the farm with Steve's parents. He lived to the ripe old age of 14.
• Steve, the husband (just started to stitch the jacket) - Steve and I met the first week of our freshman year in college, dated all the way through and got married a year after we graduated.

And there you have it...an update on my life as well as...finally...a stitching up date! With our 21st Wedding Anniversary coming up next month, I would love to finish Family Sampler! It was my desire to have it completed last year for our 20th Anniversary...but maybe I can get it done this year? Maybe.

Well, until next time...remember...

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch often!

Lisa