Sunday, April 13, 2014

Weekly Wrap-Up–March 30th-April 5th

Following the death of my mom, there hasn’t been a whole lot going on around here.  My brother, Brady, flew back to Arkansas to see about settling mom’s estate.  He’s the executor of her will.  On Monday, the Ard Church of Christ gave a nice memorial service for my mom.  There were about 20 people in attendance.  My cousin, Leora, held a wake afterwards.  Mom was cremated, and her ashes were placed in an urn in her plot at Ard Cemetery beside my dad and my brother, Jimmy Ray, Jr., who died of pneumonia when he was 7.

I did a lot of crying this week.  Truth be told, I’ve really been mourning my mom for the last seven weeks, ever since her cancer diagnosis.  I think I’m about cried out.

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On Friday, the weather was so nice, and we couldn’t wait to get out of the house and emerge from our winter caves to enjoy some spring sunshine!  We drove out to the Hampton Coliseum box office to get our tickets for opening night of the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus.  Then we shopped at the big Goodwill Outlet, one of only 2 in Virginia.  Then I took the kids to Rally’s for lunch.  We haven’t done that in a couple of years, and it was a real treat!  They have a new funnel cake, and we shared one of those, too.  Yum!  Then we decided to drop in at Blue Bird Gap Farm.

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I have fond memories of going there as a child myself, and I have enjoyed taking my kids there over the years.  I was shocked to see that most of the animal exhibits have now been removed, and it’s really more of a small park or playground now than a farm.  That’s too bad.  The kids looked around in the antiques barn and spent some time on the playground, though.  Still fun for them!

Then we did some quick shopping at Ollie’s Bargain Outlet before heading back to Virginia Beach to pick Hayden up from school.  We arrived just as the bell rang, and then we got right back on the highway to head off to the Virginia Zoo in Norfolk!

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As you can see, the kids had a great time and ended up in a cage where they belonged!  Smile  We even got ice cream on the way home.  After all, a day out with the kids wouldn’t be complete without ice cream!

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Gosh, it sure was nice to get out and have some fun with the kids.  It was almost like a much-needed stress release.  These last couple of months have been pretty rough.  We had so much fun on Friday, though, that it really makes us look forward with anticipation to our spring break.  It won’t be long!

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