Last Sunday morning, the kids and I started a road trip to Kentucky for Thanksgiving.  It was a down-to-the-last-minute decision, one that I put off because I was truly dreading that 16+ hour drive each way. However, the kids were off school all week and that meant that I wasn't going to get any work done at home anyway.  Plus, we got some sad news just before Thanksgiving that my grandma's cancer has returned, after a 7-year remission.  Hopefully we'll know more in a few days, but that bit of news made the trip all the more important, and urgent, to me.  I have always known Momaw to be unstoppable.  She could work as hard as any man, and her homemade biscuits would make your mouth water.  Plus, my cousin and his family were making the trip from Hawaii this year.  I figured that if he could fly his family across 6 time zones, then surely I could drive myself and the kids North for a few days.

We ended up staying a couple of days longer than planned, just so we could visit my grandmas a little longer.  My other grandma is very ill also, and if you follow this blog, you'll know that she has been unwell for months.  Every time I squeeze in a visit, I feel like it might be the last time I get to see her.  We drove up this summer to see her in the hospital, and looking back at those photographs, she actually looked so healthy and lively back then. She couldn't remember my girls' names this time.  And although that broke my heart, I know that it's just a stage of life that she's going through, and that she still loves us all no matter what.

I did have my computer with me, but between all the different visits and dinners and cooking and driving from one family member's house to another, and four of those days being spent on the road (yes I am crazy), time and internet connection weren't always on my side.  We got home last night about 11:30pm, and I let the kids skip school and just sleep in this morning.  After we get unpacked and settled, I will be able to dig in and get caught back up on some galleries and emails.

Thanks for your patience, friends.  I will be back soon with photos from our trip, and stories to go along with them!

xo,

Stacey