Sister Trip

Karen & I usually get together every August for a "sister trip" in SLC - shopping, eating, laughing, talking, more shopping, swimming, etc. This year we decided to meet in St George to help mom get a new look for her home - to take care of some of dad's things - and visit and catch up! We met in St George Thursday night - Sept 11 - 3 mos to the day from dad's death. It was so emotional for Karen to be back in their home. We cried, we laughed, we talked and we tried to heal. We miss dad so much, but wanted to focus on helping mom. She had picked out some new furniture for her living room that she was anxious to show us. That spurred us on to begin some projects of cleaning, rearranging, and de-junking - way more projects than we intended, but it was our therapy. We started with mom's bedroom - cleaning out dad's closet and mom's too. From there, we ended up moving all the living room furniture into the family room - making room for mom's new furniture to be delivered on Saturday. It seems like one thing always leads to another, but we were on a roll. We were up until 2:30 in the morning on Saturday - just couldn't find a good stopping point. Then, we had lots of help show up on Saturday morning to haul things out, move things around, and haul things back in. Thanks to Uncle Garth & Aunt Patti, Uncle Eddie & Aunt Katherine, Kelly, Gayle, and others. THEN.... the unspeakable happened after everyone had left except me - it was a little after noon. Mom (Grandma Carol) tripped over a phone cord and took a really bad fall in the laundry room. I saw her fall and knew it was bad - it was a terrible, terrible feeling. I called Kelly & Gayle to come back - they were only 5 minutes away. We tried to move her, but immediately knew that we would need an ambulance. It was a long afternoon and evening at the emergency room & hospital. Mom had fractured her hip and required surgery. Thankfully, it was not a hip replacement, but still required two pins and will take a long time to heal. I was so sad - she did not need this in her life right now. It seems that things happen for a reason - maybe we will know that reason some day! Karen & I couldn't bring ourselves to leave mom in a mess, so we took delivery of the furniture on Saturday, stayed up until 3:00 in the morning on Sunday, and until 1:00 a.m. on Monday. There were some closets and cupboards that we didn't get to, but we felt like we accomplished a lot. Below are some pictures of things we took out of the house. In posts below you will see some of the before and after photos, but they really don't do it justice.