Mema and a home update

As most of you know, while I was in Washington DC, I received a late-night call from my dad that my Mema had passed away after surviving triple-bypass surgery, cancer and a couple of strokes over the last 15 years. She was tired and she is now at peace. She wanted her funeral to be a celebration, and we sure tried to honor her wish. Scott and I had a great visit with the family. Mema finally got all her "biddies" (grandchildren and great-grandchildren) home at the same time. She said she was like a mother hen and liked to have her biddies all around her. Unfortunately, life and careers have scattered all the grandchildren from California to Ohio to Florida, so it is difficult to get us all home at the same time.
On Friday night we had the viewing and receiving line. I've never shaken so many hands, and I was touched by the outpouring of support from the hundreds of people who came through that line. Many people noticed that my cousins and I looked a lot like Mema in her younger years. The funeral home had put together a slide show of pictures of her, and it was playing that night. It's quite a compliment. She was beautiful. I will miss her so much.

with my dad in the yard of the family home in Raleigh

Mema and Papa

July 2010

After we returned home from Raleigh, which was my third set of flights in two weeks, we went out to the garden to pull some carrots. And to my surprise, some peas were ready, too! Here's a few pics of the corn and a poppy flower before we left. I believe these were taken on January 14 -- between the New York and DC trips.

And here's when we got home on Sunday morning.

 Carrots for dinner!

I think we'll actually be able to eat corn from the garden!

poppy

We have also been in the middle of a bathroom remodel. It all started with a post on Young House Love. Here's their post about the delivery of theirs. We just wanted a new washer and dryer. We got that and a whole lot more. After I ordered the same pair (we got 10% off and they got 20% off), I realized that our hot water supply was leaking. Not a big deal on our old set. I just washed all our laundry on cold, but now I want to take advantage of the hot water features on modern washers. When I called our neighbor over I told him we wanted it fixed, but we really wanted them stacked to make room for a double vanity. And new tile on the floors. Soooooo.....we currently have tile down (travertine I found on sale for $1.68 per sq ft) -- no grout yet. The vanity and faucets are on the way. We have a new backsplash, light fixture and a toilet in the office waiting to be installed. Quite exciting. So long old mauve tile and cheapo vanity! I'm hoping to show some pics of the progress this week. And hopefully we'll have some after photos by this weekend!