Summer week 1: Catching up

Summer was off to a great start!  We had a water party with Derek's friends, library trips, water fights, Sydney got a haircut, etc. It was a fun relaxing week!  We were all ready to jump into a summer of lots of reading, piano practice, garden care and overall self-improvement!  Ha, ha.

Monday morning of the second week of summer, I was chatting with my sister on the phone (we live an hour away from each other) like I do every day.  She was feeling run down and not super great.  (Considering she had had two surgeries 6 weeks apart and was still recovering from the second, I didn't think it was that big of a deal.)  A few hours later she calls to tell me she is in the hospital.  That old saying, my heart skipped a beat, sure felt real right then.  After she got the news a few weeks before that she was cancer free with the surgeries and had no need for additional treatments, I thought she was on her way to a full recovery.  My bad.

She had lungs full of blood clots and had passed out.  Thankfully, her heroine daughter, Meg, was able to get help asap.  Tara is so, so lucky.  That could have been bad.  She spent the week in the hospital, having a procedure that blasts the blood clots to smithereens!  When I found out she was in the hospital, and what had happened, my first thought was, oh, man, I need to go hug the living daylights out of Meg!!  We had no plans that week, I packed up the kids in like 10 minutes and we were driving North asap.  We stayed with the kids at my parent's house for the week and we were able to visit Tara every day and try and entertain her during her third hospital stay in about 3 months time.
The kids loved having a week to play and hopefully it took some of the trauma out of the situation.  Tara is doing well, getting strength back and looking healthier by the day.  She is one tough cookie.
After that crazy week, none of my lofty summer goals seemed to matter any more.  We spent a lot of time playing with cousins, playing with each other, being grateful that Tara is still here and cherishing family relationships.

There were lots and lots of scout camp outs (Matt and Zack), trips to the Lodge, Uintahs, cousin sleepovers, soccer games, parties, girl's camp etc.  Our kids hardly read anything at all, the house was a disaster, the garden untended and the piano left lonely in the front room.  We are full of gratitude and joy that we live in this beautiful world and have so many opportunities to grow and change and become better!  Life is beautiful.