Day Two, Me and You

I decided fuchsia would be a nice color.  Pam is off to work and Matthew (our youngest son) has gone to bed.  Top Chef Masters is recording on the DVR.  I decided to put on one of my recorded programs.  Pam and I like to watch "our shows" together so now Dateline NBC is playing.  Ugh!  It's a rerun ... delete!  Next up, Iron Chef!


I danced around a little before Top Chef took over the television.  Trying to beef up my calorie burn.  Then ate a veggie tray, light string cheese and some mult-grain toast.  Yeah it's midnight, but this is my breakfast time.  


I took a little break from the blog and started a stock for some navy beans.  I used three ham shanks and the bone from our last ham.  I just covered it with water in our largest crock pot and started soaking the beans.  I also peeled a couple onions, diced a few turnips, some baby carrots and celery to add later.  The vegetables are in water so they don't dry out or turn colors.  I don't know why, but I felt like having beans.


It reminds me of my childhood.  My mother used to make some killer meals.  She really knew how to stretch a dollar.  We were an Army family when being in the military really wasn't the highest paying job.  I didn't realize it until I was an adult.  My mother was really amazing.  I so want to be like her.  She knew how to make a little seem like a lot.  We had a lot of fun as a family.  We did things on base that were cheaper than civilian.  On Sundays we usually went on a family drive and explored different areas.  Going hiking usually.  It was a way for us to be close.  Some nights we would play board games or Michigan rummy.  My dad taught me cribbage because I hounded him so much.  I would spend hours watching mom and dad play it.  I always wanted to do what they did.  Dad was a coffee hound too.  He used to have a little coffee with his cream and sugar.  I'd sit on his lap and would get him to give me the last of his cup which was usually just a mound of warm sugar.  I loved it.  My dad had a hearing aid with the amplifier, a little box that he had in his shirt pocket.  I used to whisper into his pocket that I loved him.  He was my hero when I was a little girl.


My dad passed away in August.  He had Alzheimer's.  My mom and dad were living with my sister and her family.  My mom needed help with dad and it was hard living on their own.  Besides everything else, the house was just falling apart.  Dad had really kept the Alzheimer's at bay for a good while because he would keep his mind active -- mostly with crossword puzzles and going to class at the senior center.  He and mom led a very active lifestyle.  Then the last few years Alzheimer's really got the better of him and he struggled.  His health took a downturn and he really was not enjoying life at all.  We used to play rummy all the time and while living with Fran (my sister), they played often.   The last days for him, he couldn't "get it" anymore, even with card playing.   I know that that is not how he'd like to live.  He was proud of his intellect.  Alzheimer's is a wicked, cruel disease.

At his funeral, there were a lot of his friends, family and church family.  It was perhaps one of the happiest funerals I've ever been to.  Many people had fond, fond memories of dad.  A lot of happy anecdotes.  It was a lovely service.  A few days after the service, they had dad's interment at the military cemetery.  There was a military service for him and it was so moving.  We were all in tears.  Not because we were sad, but because dad so loved being in the service that we all knew this was what he wanted.  And that he was home.  Matthew had asked mom if he could have some of dad's ashes to take with him.  They got him a little urn and now dad sits on our entertainment center watching over us all.