Good Morning and Happy Easter Monday! I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend spending it exactly as you hoped! :)
I went back to Minnesota for the weekend to spend with my mom and dad, see my grandma and catch up with a few friends. For a short weekend, it was a full weekend and one that was filled with all kinds of emotions.
I hadn't been home since Christmas and there have been some big changes since then; My Grandma moved into assisted living and my parents have decided to build a new home, which means that the house my dad
and I grew up in will be torn down and replaced with a new one.
I am SO excited for my parents - they absolutely deserve their dream home! They have been married 30 years and have worked so hard farming and raising me and my sisters. My mom is the happiest, most excited lady you have probably ever met and my dad is excited because she is excited, I know it's something he has always wanted to give her. But, my dad is the more sentimental type. He grew up this house and raised his girls in the same home. He has the most memories of us all. Before I left, my dad had to take my picture in front of the old house, it may have been the last time I see it and the last time I spend the night in it.
The house has been re-decorated and added on to many times to fit our family. We all learned to walk on the same slanted floors and have kept our same bedrooms, for the most part, throughout the years. They are already starting to clean out and move out so they can start building this spring. Every 5 minutes my mom was asking if I needed or wanted something, I even discovered some of the things I had left behind. At the end of the weekend i had a new, replacement, refrigerator for our kitchen, George Foreman electric grill, and a pair of Carhardt overalls! :)
The new house will have many more memories and is being built to fit a growing family again as we get married and start our own families. Thus the reason their will be two bedrooms on the main floor - so that their grand kids can be close when they come to stay! :) (No kids in the works, just so you know!)
My grandma also moved to a new home, assisted living. I never ever thought my grandma would be there, although she is 93. She was always young, tough and able to take care of herself, it is hard to see the grandma I grew up with get old. I experienced her age first-hand when I got to her room. She was napping and couldn't figure out right away who I was and that scared me. I was trying to hide the tears running down my face for the first half hour I was there. Fortunately, she came back to herself and we had a wonderful afternoon together over coffee and cookies in their common area and visiting with her new friends. I seriously spent
all afternoon there and if it wasn't for supper time I probably would have stayed longer. One of the men that was there even knew who I was and that I was the University of Minnesota Homecoming Queen back in 2004. It was so neat to know that was so important to him because he was a Golden Gopher too. I asked my Grandma if she was going to stay there. She said yes, that she thought it was a good idea. I agreed with her and told her that she needed to so she could make it to our wedding in August, she told me there was no way she would miss it. I believe her.
My dear friends, Melissa and her husband Rob, were also kind enough to hang out with me on Friday night. I had not seen them since last June. So much changes, and yet stays the same. I think its because Melissa and I talk so often during the week.
It's amazing how in such a short period of time so much can change. It's so important to not take time for granted, it is limited. If not for you, for others. The memories we have and are able to share are priceless, keep sharing and making them.
Happy Monday!
Linking up with
Monday Mingling,
YOLO Mondays,
Meet Me Mondays, and
The Collective Blog Hop.
