Dad's Memorial

Today is my first day to catch my breath since we lost my Dad. His wish was to be cremated so we honored his wishes and held a Memorial on Tuesday. To be fair, it was the nicest one I'd ever been to...Pastor Hughes was wonderful, especially considering that we'd just met. And our family did a good job pulling together to create a slide show and a photo collage to be displayed with other pictures of Dad throughout the funeral home. I wrote his obit...finished it Father's Day morning, and then a few of us took the time to write our fondest memories of Dad, which the pastor read aloud and turned out to be pretty funny and bittersweet. Below is mine...it doesn't translate as well in print, it's a lot funnier when you read it aloud with a little exasperation from my end. :o) And here's the link to Dad's Obit

One of the things I loved the most about my Dad was his boundless enthusiasm for things in life. Some men are into cars, some are into sports, my Dad…well, he loved his boat. And when I say he loved it, I mean he LOOOOVED it. Like if my mom were to ever give him an ultimatum and say it’s either me or the boat, he might actually take a minute to think it over! It seemed like every time I came to the house he’d catch me before I got in the door, eager to show off the new toy or gadget he’d bought for it. Eyes shining and full of excitement he’d say, “Did you see the new seat I bought for the boat? Come look!” Before I could open my mouth to respond, he was already dragging me across the yard-and with a flourish of his arms that would make even the “Price is Right” girls proud, he’d puff up his chest with pride and say, “So…what do you think?!”

“It’s nice Dad.”

“Nice? Are you getting a good look at it?”

“Yeah I can see it fine, but it’s just a seat…”

“What do you mean just a seat? Do you know how long it took me to find this online? Here, you just need to climb up and get a feel for it.”

“Dad, I don’t want to climb up there.”

“Sure you do, come on!” And with that, I was yanked up into the boat and unceremoniously plopped down onto the seat. And I couldn’t help but to laugh because the look on his face told it all…he was supremely confident that once my butt hit that cushion, I would be as excited and giddy as he was.

Then, if it wasn’t the seat that had him grinning like a fool, it was the new trolling motor. Lord I think we actually heard about that one for DAYS!!! At one point I remember him even breaking out the owner’s manual at the dinner table and reading to us from it, telling us all the cool things he could do, especially with the little remote that strapped to his wrist like a watch.

But…that was Dad. It never took much to make him happy…he was just naturally excited and fulfilled by life. Whether it was something as small as a new boat seat or the 15 minutes of time he got me all to himself while trying to convince me my butt was much comfier in this seat than in the last…those were the things he cherished most. My father was an amazing Dad and Grandfather and I will ALWAYS carry the picture in my heart of his huge grin and the sheer happiness and excitement that radiated from him when he had us all together.

And if he were still here right now, I would gladly climb onto that boat seat with no complaints and tell him that it was the most amazing seat I had ever laid eyes on….

Daddy

Today has been the worst day of my life. My dad died unexpectedly early this morning.

I feel like I'm crumbling into a million little pieces...

I'm so sorry Daddy...

Some Possible Titles

Ok guys...so far here are a couple of possible titles for the new blog. So I need your feedback. Which you like or if there is another altogether that you suggest....lemme know.

The Flip Side of Spinster

The Ex-Spinster War Diaries

Memoirs of a Coupled Gal

or...here's a few versions of one suggestion:

Adventures of a Rookie Wife
Diaries of a Rookie Wife
Tales of a Rookie Wife
The Rookie Wife Diaries

Need Your Brilliance

Ok, so the game plan is that hopefully this whole insurance settlement nightmare should be settled by the end of the month. Again...hopefully. And once that is tucked away I will buy my new laptop and get started on various endeavors, one being a return to the blog world.

But with this return comes a possible and difficult change. I'm not a spinster anymore. So it doesn't seem fitting to write under the same title...so I think a change may be in order.

Here's where you come in.

I need help thinking of a new title. I've done the jilted, single girl thing. Now I'm moving on to a fresh chapter of being newly married and the discoveries and adventures of this new life. But what do I call it?

Come on my brilliant friends...help. :o)

My Poor Foot

Feel free to overlook the fact that I need to repaint my toe nails. Though in fairness, I haven't been able to bend or touch my foot to pretty them up. So here you go-purple, swollen and unattractive. This is now one week post ass busting. Poor foot..... :o)


And yes yes...I know I have long monkey toes. :o) My dad used to call me that all the time growing up. I still pick things up off the floor with my toes when I'm too lazy to bend over. LOL

Limping But Still Here

Hey guys...I'm still here. Just dealing with so much crap right now with all the car stuff that I've not been in much of a mood to write. It's amazing the number of things one incident can cause. One minute things are fine, next you're worrying about money, finding another car, dealing with stress, dealing with doctors and bills. Grrrrrr.

It looks like things are starting to fall into place though so that's a positive sign. I finally got a new car...a super cute, black 2010 Honda CRV so I'm happy about that. Finally negotiated a settlement with the insurance company for my car (that was a nightmare) and got the written offer yesterday. So that should be wrapped up very soon hopefully...we could really use the money to cover costs of the new one and whatnot. And I've recently sent them all my stuff for the medical portion so hopefully we can get that ball rolling. Not sure what I'm supposed to ask for, I think my boss said you start by taking the amount of all your doctor bills and multiplying it by 3? So if anyone has insight into that portion I would be greatly appreciate it.

To top things off, I slipped on some rocks last weekend and twisted the hell out of my ankle. I can finally walk on it again but it's still swollen in places, turning purple in places because of the bruises and has a tendency to go numb in places too. Sigh. If it's not one thing it's another.

But all that aside, I do love being married. There are things I've had to adjust to which I'm sure will be good for blog fodder later (like having to 'talk about and discuss' everything with finances and purchases. Sigh. I get it but it doesn't mean I have to like it.) And I've found some creative writing classes that are online but I've heard good things about them and there are no 'in-classroom' courses offered near me so it's my only real option but I'm excited about it! And as soon as we get the settlement squared away, there's a laptop I've had my eye on so that I can finally write or blog whenever I want. Right now I'm using Jess' computer but he needs it at night for work so that's another reason I've not been able to write.

So BOO to the bad things that have happened...but YAY for all the good that is coming up!