Waterworld

Water played a very intregal role in my day. To survive the ups and downs of today, I tried to go just go with the flow, so to speak.

The morning began alright as we got right up and ready to go to the memorial service for DH's dad, Grady. After dressing up a little and having a quick breakfast, we left the house. We met my MIL to carpool for the drive to Vancouver to save gas. It was a smooth commute and we got there pretty quickly.

Upon arriving, I recognized some of DH's family right away. His brothers and their families were already there. It was a lovely reception and very nice to meet and greet many family members I'd never had the chance to meet. I met DH's oldest brother, Greg, for the first time and his daughter (DH's niece), who happens to be just 6 months younger than DH. Also, I had a great conversation with another one of his brothers, Stu, who also happens to be a teacher. We talked shop in a langauge only other teachers seem to understand. Later on, my SIL, BIL, and their little boy arrived.

Of all the kids, she was the only one who hadn't been on speaking terms with their father. So this was a very big deal for her to come. It meant a lot to everyone. At one point or another, all the kids had had their troubles with Grady, so I have to say how truly endearing it was to see DH and his four siblings all together in one place for the first in probably over 20 years or more. He was a complicated man to love, but he tried to make things right near the end. We took lots of photos and exchanged contact info. No sense going another 20 years without keeping in touch.

After the reception wound down, we all drove out to a little park along the Columbia River. It was Grady's wish to have his ashes spread over border between Oregon and Washington. It apparently isn't a legal thing to do, but everyone figured it was a small price to pay to fulfill his wish. His remains were kept inside of a plastic bag within the urn, but it took some doing to open the zip tie. It took a good ten minutes to open the bag. Finally, we all gathered at the water's edge as DH's oldest brother slowly let the ashes all into the river. A flower wreath was also laid to rest upon the waves as well. It was truly a touching moment as the whole family stood in silence and watched it float away.

We said our goodbyes and then had lunch with DH's mom, sister, and her family at a nearby McMenamins. It was a first and was extremely pleasant. For those of you who know my backstory, you'll understand why this was such a tall order on everyone's part. She is on the verge of giving birth to their second child, so it has been a nice change for the better in the family dynamics, so our hopefully our kids will know their cousins as they grow up.

It was well into the afternoon before we finally headed home. We came home and were ready to take a rest. As I walked into our bathroom, I realized I was standing in an about an inch or two of water. Turns out our toilet had flooded while we were gone and soaked the whole floor. Needless to say, we had horrible time getting the floor cleared of all our junk. I should probably mention that our bathrrom has served as a partial storage space. You can imagine the water damage. Thankfully, it was all clear water and we shouldn't have too much difficulty cleaning up. It didn't make too far into the carpet and was mostly isolated on the tile floor. It just wasn't what we needed to come home to. It just added to DH's stress level.

One interesting thing we learned was that Grady left DH his car. He'll head out to his dad's place tomorrow to meet his brothers to go clean up things. He asked me to take tomorrow off from work, so I scrambled to find a sub. The awesome school receptionist found one for me and my wonderful coworker Lara called me to check in and promised to handle everything. Definitely makes me feel good that they are so caring and I don't have to worry about my students. I am very meticulous (aka anal retentive) about my lessons, so it's not easy to just let go. In the meantime in between time, I have major housecleaning, papers to grade, and stuff to organize tomorrow...so I am currently keeping the outside world at bay for just a bit.

Whew, what a day!