January 27, 2012

Linda died on Monday.  They had diagnosed her and started giving her treatments that she was responding well to, but then everything turned around again and she didn't make it.  Bob stayed in Utah all week to make all the funeral arrangements and comfort his sisters.  The funeral was Friday.  We drove up and stayed with Wendy on Thursday.  The kids took it pretty well.  It's so great to have the gospel so I could tell them exactly where she is now and that we'll see her again and that she's happy because she's with her husband.

Bob will go to Virginia for three days this week to do the graveside service and stay with his grandparents.  I'm so glad he gets to go be with them.  This has been so stressful to arrange everything and deal with his crazy sisters and his own grief.  I hope they can offer him some comfort and he can feel a little taken care of for a change.

Then Thursday night I fly to Arizona for a girls weekend with Amanda and Wendy. I'm sad it'll delay getting to spend time with Bob now that he's finally home for good, but I'm so excited for our time together.  It's been so nice to have that to look forward to during all the time of doing everything by myself.

Today is Seth's 4th birthday.  He's been telling me he wants a pinata for months and we bought it a week ago and he can't stop talking about it.  We got a lightning mcqueen pinata and plates and lots of balloons.  The other kids all made him great cards and he got cards with money from his grandparents.  He was really happy.  And we got him a roller coaster for his main present, but the shipping took a lot longer than I thought it would so it isn't here yet.  But we told him about it and he's really excited.

I'm trying to work with Aaron with more natural consequences.  He's so great at school and church.  I get glowing reviews of his behavior. He was student of the trimester for the whole first grade.  So I know he can turn it off when he wants to.  But at home he's still being crazy.  So I've been attaching bigger consequences to tantrums and trying to keep my emotions out of it.  Today, while we did Seth's pinata Aaron tantrummed about how he couldn't get his bag open instead of picking up candy and he missed most of it.  He begged the other kids to give him candy, but I told them not to.  It seems like it's making a little sense to him.