November has come and has almost gone and I haven’t even written one blog yet. What’s wrong with me? Oh yeah, I’ve just been busy (that’s my excuse for everything, I should probably come up with a new one soon).
Halloween was a blast this year, I know it was a few weeks ago, but I haven’t even posted a blog about it. Uncle Paul, Aunt Amy, Grandpa Bommelje, and Amy’s sister and niece (Kari & Maddie) came over to go trick-or-treating with us. The little girls loved it, of course, and then there was Ally, she was done after about 4 houses. I guess it wasn’t as fun as she thought it would be. And she wasn’t too thrilled with getting dressed up in public. She didn’t have a problem wearing her costume in the house, but when we told her she had to go house to house it in, she didn’t quite like that idea. But because I’m the mean mom that I am, I made her go to about ½ the houses in our neighborhood. She should thank me now, because she still has a TON of candy (although most of it came from Grandma Fisk, but she doesn’t know that).
Because of all the freezing cold weather we’ve been getting, I guess it was bound to snow. Ally has always been an outdoor girl and the snow and cold weather is no different. She loves the snow, she doesn’t mind the cold, and if we let her, she would live in the car (that’s what she’s been saying to us lately). She keeps saying that “the car is our home”, I keep saying “not yet, but it could be someday” (hopefully not, but you never know). Anyway, back to the snow story... Last weekend when the snow actually stuck and there was enough to “go sledding” we took the girls out and went sledding. Olivia wasn’t too thrilled with it because she had just puked and wasn’t feeling all that great, but again, being the mean mommy that I am, I made her go out and thought a little fresh air would do her some good. Needless to say, she wasn’t very happy with me and made Jerry and I hold her the WHOLE time we were outside. 
Then Monday came…Jerry went to work like a normal Monday and he called me around 11:30 am with some extrememly sad news that his grandma was in the hospital on life support. Of course my heart dropped because the last time this happened was when my dad was in the exact same spot. Jerry and Grandma had a very special relationship and therefore he was by her side for the next two days straight. Wednesday night she passed away. All 11 of her children and a few grandkids (including Jerry) were by her side. Grandma was a special lady, and as I always called her “crazy”. She had 12 children (that alone made her crazy in my book) but she was a very loving, caring woman. She had 44 grandchildren and over 60 great grandchildren…now that’s love like you don’t see everyday. How can one’s heart be that big, you ask? Hers was!!! This past week was a very draining week for all of our family. I was between work, the hospital, and home…it was exhausting, sad, and amazing all at once. Exhausting and sad for obvious reasons, but amazing because you’ve never seen so much love from a family as I saw last week with Jerry’s. Even though all of Jerry’s aunts and uncles and mom do not live next door to each other, some are out of state, and you can imagine with 11 of them that they don’t do family reunions that often, they gathered together like the months/years had never separated them. They pulled together with hugs, kisses, love, they cried on each others shoulders, and were there for each other like a genuine family. Everyone was amazing toward each other and there for one another, it didn’t matter if you had never even met someone until that day. It was an amazing experience that Grandma made happen. Grandma’s funeral was Friday morning and as we all said our good-byes we all knew that we were just saying “see you later” as Jerry’s cousin and uncle said at the funeral. We will all miss her a ton, but we’re all happy that she’s in a better place and with Grandpa!
This is our family with Grandma last August.
