The past week hasn't been much different than the last few weeks. Some of the family obligations have been reduced a tad, but not eliminated! As a matter of fact, one of Grandma's daughters and the sister of the uncle who was in the Veterans Facility in Ann Arbor was in an awful accident a couple days ago and rolled her vehicle. She has several upper body injuries, including both arms and has already had surgery to try and repair the damage. Both arms are broken, the left is much worse than the right and is broken in several different places. The uncle has been release from the Veteran's Facility and is now home and learning to cope with his disabilities on his own. Grandma has been released from the hospital, after fooling the doctors, and making a good recovery for someone who will be 91 on October 13th. She is in a lovely nursing facility doing physical rehabilitation to gain strength so she can return home. They are talking about letting her go home this coming Tuesday. She has already asked me if I can be there. I can't. Tuesday is my normal day to work, and I would rather be at work. I know that sounds terrible of me, but I can't help it. I have done so much already, that I just want to return to my normal life. And Uncle Jim has asked me to take him to the Doctors Monday morning and I have already told him 'no'. I do have to work Monday afternoon and am not sure I would be back in time anyway.........so that was a break for me.

Now here's a coincidence for you. I have a dear friend who I have talked with about learning to say 'no' to people. She volunteered to e-mail me daily with the word "NO". Anyway, I just received an e-mail from her with exactly that message in it. Thank you, my dear friend! I guess I need her to look out for me and perhaps she was thinking about me and sent me the message to assure me I was doing the right thing. So that about sums it all up for now. I want you all to leave a thank you for my guardian angel, Shawny!

This week has been busy for me with working and running around for grand children and babysitting. I wouldn't change any of it though.

Only had to work one day this week plus go in early one morning for a staff meeting, but the fun part has been keeping busy with two of the grand children.

First, I got to pick Amber up at 9:30 AM Thursday in Muskegon to take her to her orthodontist appointment. We had a lovely day together in spite of her mouth being a little sore from having work done on her braces! I hadn't seen her in several weeks and I had been missing her. Her mother okayed for her to miss school on Friday and spend two nights here before returning her to Pentwater Saturday around 1 PM in order for her to cheer in the football game. She only ended spending Thursday night and all day Friday with me before she asked if she could go spend the night with her daddy. What am I going to do .........tell her 'no'! Not! So I took her 15 miles south to her dad's house tonight and she had supper with him and he will bring her back in the morning in time for me to take her back to Pentwater......a 101.2 mile trip......one way!

Plus we had Drew today. He is such a funny little boy! He just cracks me up. He went home around 5 PM, but they called and were in a bind and asked if he could come back around 6:45 for about an hour. I told them yes, of course! So when they dropped him off, I was in the process of making supper. Once that was out of the way with, Bumpa proceeded to fall asleep in his recliner which was the perfect opportunity for Drew to find some stickers and 'decorate' Bumpa with them! This photo shows what a good time Drew was having!

This next photo shows Bumpa waking up after he had taken a look at what Drew had done. As you can see, Drew was pretty proud of his art endeavor! Gotta love the work of an almost 4 year old!!!!

Not enough hours in a day.........

to get everything done! I've been working extra hours at work, filling in for the gal that got married and thinks she needed a honeymoon. Imagine that!!! Trying to keep up with all the normal housework and meeting extended family obligations has not afforded me much time to do anything else or anything for myself. I was barely able to fit in a haircut a week or so ago!

Hub's 90 year old grandma has been in the hospital since sometime last month and was not expected to make it. She has since been moved to a nursing home temporarily so she can get some physical rehab to regain some strength before she returns to her home to live out what ever time she has left. Of course, the entire family is being asked to make adjustments in their daily life's in order to accommodate and have a family member with her at all times. This will prove to be a difficult feat to manage. Those of us who have always been there to help, will continue to do so, but those who haven't taken the time to even stop in for a short visit the last few years will be absent as usual, putting the responsibilities on the rest of us!

And if that isn't enough, hub's uncle who has been in the Veterans Hospital in Ann Arbor is coming home today. He's been there since May 12Th. I went to his apartment last night and cleaned it once again, so he would have a clean environment to come home too. They actually wanted me to go to Battle Creek and pick him up today at 3 PM, but I told a little white lie and said I wouldn't be out of work in time to get him. Truth be told, I didn't have to work today, but didn't feel I could go and help him into my car, fold up his wheelchair and walker and put them in my car without hurting my own back. But I think I've really done enough!