We decided to make this trip a little longer and visit with
more family than usual. Because we’re the kind of people who do that, we left
at 1:00 a.m. Friday, headed for Omaha.
A short time after we left, I realized I couldn’t find my
purse. We stopped, and Murray searched thoroughly. No purse.
We called Sarah once it got light, and she searched
carefully inside and outside, but couldn’t find it.
Because of all that was in the purse, this started us canceling
bank cards, moving bills connected to the cards to others, changing the locks
on the doors of our house, and other such fun vacation activities.
Rebecca and Steve took us to their favorite bagel restaurant
Saturday morning, and I told Rebecca about the lost purse mess. “Every time I
think about it, I want to cry, but I’m sure a time will come when I don’t feel
that way.” Fortunately, I didn’t let it spoil our whole trip.
We had such a great time just spending a couple days with
Rebecca and Steve. We ate out, talked, watched two movies, including “Princess
Bride,” always a favorite.
On Sunday morning, Rebecca and Steve took us for a walk on a
pedestrian bridge in Omaha, across the Missouri River. Murray asked, “What’s on
the other side?”
Steve said, “Iowa?” So we walked far enough across so that
we could say that we walked to Iowa, then turned around.
On Monday, we drove to visit my mom in Missouri. We have
started a great tradition of playing scrabble with her, and to my surprise, I
actually won this time.
My brother Rodney and his friend Marilyn came to Mom’s place
on Tuesday, and we played dominoes. Murray and Rodney won most of the games. “A
game of skill,” Rodney said.
At about 2:30 that afternoon, Mom said, “Oh, I’d better get
back to my room. It’s time for Kathy to call.”
That evening, we had dinner with Murray’s brother Myles and
his family, Heather and Melissa, and Murray’s brother Aaron came, too, for
grilled hotdogs.
Heather and Melissa showed us their newly-hatched chicks in
a cage where they keep them during the day, and I was telling them how we used
to get baby chicks in the mail when I was a kid. I loved listening to them
cheap and sticking my finger in the wholes in the box to feel how soft they
were.
While I spoke, Heather took out one of the babies and let me
hold it in my hands. So cute.
I told Myles about this, and he said, “Yes, they’re just a
little bigger than a McNugget.”
On Wednesday we drove further south in Missouri to visit
Murray’s sister Sherill. She’d fallen the week before, broke her leg, and had
to have extensive surgery.
When I heard the name of the town where she’d gone for
rehab, I thought it sounded familiar. When I mentioned it to Mom, she said that
was the town where my cousin Michelle had just moved to from Florida.
I contacted Michelle, and she visited Sherill. We had lunch
with Michelle and her husband Keith on Wednesday. Michelle and I decided we
hadn’t seen each other since 1977, at our grandparents’ 50th wedding
anniversary. We had a lovely talk and said we should try not to wait 46 years
to see each other again.
We visited Sherill, and although she has a long way to go
with her rehab, I’ve never seen anyone who has such a positive attitude. God
bless her.
Wednesday night we drove to Branson, Missouri, to visit
Murray’s aunts Melody and Elena, and his uncle Larry. We hadn’t seen them for
six years.
Melody was generous and let Murray and me sleep at her
place, even though she’d just had surgery the day before. Elena baked brownies
and cooked homemade Chinese food, and showed us a quilt she’s working on. We
also had a nice talk with Murray’s sister-in-law Sandra.
Melody shared her doggy Mini with me. Mini was wonderful,
putting her feet up on me so I could pick her up and hold her on my lap. This,
and the dogs at Myles’s house, helped me with my missing our kitties.
Because we are just like that, we started our drive home at
nine Thursday evening, and were pretty exhausted when we got home Friday
afternoon.
Such a beautiful time, traveling to a bunch of towns,
spending time with a lot of family, just talking and visiting. Lovely.