It Was a Good Weekend... Until

What seems to be messing with my mind these past few weeks has been just how clueless we really were last year.  From January 30th up until the day Jeff died, we lived a normal life, minus all the doctor's appointments. 

We went to church and work, Jeff taught in his AWANA Cubbies class, our oldest played hockey, I was co-leading a MOPS group, we went to every school function under the sun.

The Weekend of: Friday night Jeff went out.  This may not seem like much, but it was.  He was the consummate family man and rarely took time for himself which meant I often had to spend time convincing him to do a night out with the guys.  This usually only worked if there was a gimmick involved, like a beer tasting or in this case the release of Star Wars in 3D.  He met a friend for dinner and a movie on Friday night. 

The next day, while I ran our oldest to hockey practice and then a playdate with his best bud, Jeff sanded the drywall in a bathroom remodel he was working on.  In classic Jeff fashion he must have thought that sanding by hand was taking forever (or it aggravated his carpal tunnel) so he got out the power sander and went to town.  The only issue: there was drywall dust in every corner of my house.  Literally.  Everywhere.  From the bedrooms upstairs to the far reaches of the basement.  I got home from the playdate with enough time to load the kids up and head our to our evening at Monster Jam.  I can't even begin to tell you how thankful I am that I chose to let the dust go.  I didn't say a word.  I could have picked a huge fight over what was destined to be an all day cleaning event for me.  But I didn't.  I didn't want to ruin our evening out with friends and I knew that fighting over it wasn't going to change the bottom line... the dust.

So we loaded up our kids and met up with two families for an evening out at Monster Jam.  We grabbed a quick bite to eat and then watched the show.  Lights, noise, smashing trucks, what's not to love?  Then back home.  The boys fell asleep instantaneously in the car and Jeff and I talked for two hours on the drive back.  Most of our conversation was about our planned trip to Disney World and the decision to postpone until the fall when Jeff could drive again.  Jeff also talked about his plans to help a friend who's military husband might be gone for a year.  Talking about the kids and random stuff but having a good time.

We carried the kids to bed and then fell asleep ourselves.

It is a phrase I have used a lot:  It was a good weekend... until.

Sincerely,

Jeff's Wife