With everything that has gone on in the past few weeks I have kind of forgotten I’m running a marathon on Sunday. Oh well, maybe its best that way.
Grandmother’s service and reception went well. I enjoyed the trip up there and spending so much time with my family, it is just under unfortunate circumstances. We stayed in Stephenville which was quite entertaining. We didn’t fit in without a huge pickup truck. Yes, we were in a huge SUV, but we only had 4 wheels, unleaded gas, and no truck bed; therefore we did not fit in. We went on to Lipan Friday afternoon to meet with the preacher and get into the church to get a few things settled. We met the preacher at my mom’s cousin, Rhonda’s house. She and her daughter had redone this house and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen such an awesome remodel. Wow. I was so shocked when we walked inside. I’m having them move in and redecorate my currently non-existent house when I win the lottery. Going to Stephenville is going back about 10-20 years in time, and heading into Lipan takes you back another 20 years on top of that. It’s nice though.
My uncle and cousin and their family came in Friday evening and we all ate at the Cotton Patch. I’d never head of that restaurant, but apparently it’s a chain in east and north Texas – kind of a mix between Chili’s and Black Eyed Pea (i.e. deliciously bad for you food). I ordered chicken fried steak, as it only seemed appropriate given the situation. That was Grandmother’s signature meal.
Saturday at the church was unreal. We got there about an hour early and a few Lipan residents were already in there setting up for lunch, receiving dishes from other residents. People were coming out of the woodwork – it was crazy. The service was good – Molly read and has composure far beyond her 13 years. I read the letter posted below. I almost made it through it without breaking down, but not quite. I had trouble making it through the last paragraph, but I should have expected that considering I didn’t make it through that paragraph every time I read it leading up to the service. Oh well. My cousin Greg spoke briefly as well and I’m glad he did.
After the service we all went to the fellowship hall and OMG. Talk about food. I was questioning if I had possibly gone to heaven with Grandmother. There were no less than 30 “covered dishes” out for us to eat: spaghetti, pasta salad, macaroni salad, spiced meatballs, pot roast, Mexican casserole, vegetables, bread, rolls, tea, and who knows what else. The most heavenly part of it all was the dessert table. I’m guessing there were a good fifteen options there. I sampled most if not all of those…pecan pie, chocolate meringue pie, chocolate bunt cake, brownies with nuts, brownies without nuts, two red velvet cakes, lemon bunt cake, cookies…and those are just the ones I remember. All this food. From people in the town, people mostly unrelated to us because the ones related to us were the ones eating the food. These people help out for no other reason than to just do so. It is amazing, and I guess what you get from a town of 430 or so people. They had a similar response when my Aunt Linda died in 2003, and they had less than a day’s notice to do so.
Greg made a slide show on his computer and we setup a big tv with the slide show on it with some Elvis and other Grandmother music. People loved looking at the pictures dating from sometime in the 1930s to sometime in the last year. The kids especially got a kick out of seeing them all. We saw a lot of family resemblances. I was called “Little Sharon” on more than one occasion that day – by people I’d tell you I’d never met before, but swore I look just like she did when she was younger.
Elizabeth, Sean, Molly, and Kate took off from Lipan to get back to San Antonio to go see the Broadway showing of Legally Blonde. They said it was really cute. That left my parents and me with Bennett. We brought her back to Austin with us and had her for the night. I took her to the Big Top Candy Store on S. Congress and Target to shop for her birthday presents. She was sooo happy in the candy store and really didn’t ask for too much of anything. We both got a scoop of ice cream and a few pieces of candy and got out of there for $5 something. At Target we bought some “toys and stuff” to keep at my apartment for when she comes to visit because she said there are no toys there. I pulled out the box labeled “Kate and Molly’s Art Box” from the back of my closet and added “and Bennett” in silver marker to make her official. We got markers, crayons, sketch pads, and a few puzzles to put in that box. She exploded its contents across my apartment in no time, but that was okay.
Sunday morning I needed to do my last long-ish run before the marathon and then we were heading to the Gristmill to eat and return Bennett to her rightful owners. We woke up around 7 and I was taking my time getting out the door to run. Around 7:50 Bennett exclaimed “Aunt Kathleen! WHY are you not getting dressed to go run?” I’d say that my mom put her up to it, but I really don’t think she did…it came straight from Bennett. So per orders from my new 3 yr old (almost 4) coach, I suited up and headed out for 10 miles by myself. I rarely run that far by myself, but it was just fine Sunday, and nice to run from home (minus the stupid hill to get home). When I got back Bennett asked if I was sweaty and when I answered yes she said “you gotta take a shower because running is hard.” I figured she was going to say because I was smelly, but I’ll take the “because running is hard” part :-).
So that was long and rambly. Oh well. I probably won’t post again before Sunday. I am excited about the race, but not the weather. I have expectations of a PR and am working on the mental confidence to back that up. I know I’m physically capable of it, but I also know anything can happen on race day. Safe to say my head hasn’t exactly had it easy the last few weeks. On top of Grandmother and Charlie, we found out my great aunt Blondie died Monday too. I don’t remember her, but she’s another one of the Lipan gang, so they will be repeating the whole routine again, less than a week later.
Grandmother’s service and reception went well. I enjoyed the trip up there and spending so much time with my family, it is just under unfortunate circumstances. We stayed in Stephenville which was quite entertaining. We didn’t fit in without a huge pickup truck. Yes, we were in a huge SUV, but we only had 4 wheels, unleaded gas, and no truck bed; therefore we did not fit in. We went on to Lipan Friday afternoon to meet with the preacher and get into the church to get a few things settled. We met the preacher at my mom’s cousin, Rhonda’s house. She and her daughter had redone this house and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen such an awesome remodel. Wow. I was so shocked when we walked inside. I’m having them move in and redecorate my currently non-existent house when I win the lottery. Going to Stephenville is going back about 10-20 years in time, and heading into Lipan takes you back another 20 years on top of that. It’s nice though.
My uncle and cousin and their family came in Friday evening and we all ate at the Cotton Patch. I’d never head of that restaurant, but apparently it’s a chain in east and north Texas – kind of a mix between Chili’s and Black Eyed Pea (i.e. deliciously bad for you food). I ordered chicken fried steak, as it only seemed appropriate given the situation. That was Grandmother’s signature meal.
Saturday at the church was unreal. We got there about an hour early and a few Lipan residents were already in there setting up for lunch, receiving dishes from other residents. People were coming out of the woodwork – it was crazy. The service was good – Molly read and has composure far beyond her 13 years. I read the letter posted below. I almost made it through it without breaking down, but not quite. I had trouble making it through the last paragraph, but I should have expected that considering I didn’t make it through that paragraph every time I read it leading up to the service. Oh well. My cousin Greg spoke briefly as well and I’m glad he did.
After the service we all went to the fellowship hall and OMG. Talk about food. I was questioning if I had possibly gone to heaven with Grandmother. There were no less than 30 “covered dishes” out for us to eat: spaghetti, pasta salad, macaroni salad, spiced meatballs, pot roast, Mexican casserole, vegetables, bread, rolls, tea, and who knows what else. The most heavenly part of it all was the dessert table. I’m guessing there were a good fifteen options there. I sampled most if not all of those…pecan pie, chocolate meringue pie, chocolate bunt cake, brownies with nuts, brownies without nuts, two red velvet cakes, lemon bunt cake, cookies…and those are just the ones I remember. All this food. From people in the town, people mostly unrelated to us because the ones related to us were the ones eating the food. These people help out for no other reason than to just do so. It is amazing, and I guess what you get from a town of 430 or so people. They had a similar response when my Aunt Linda died in 2003, and they had less than a day’s notice to do so.
Greg made a slide show on his computer and we setup a big tv with the slide show on it with some Elvis and other Grandmother music. People loved looking at the pictures dating from sometime in the 1930s to sometime in the last year. The kids especially got a kick out of seeing them all. We saw a lot of family resemblances. I was called “Little Sharon” on more than one occasion that day – by people I’d tell you I’d never met before, but swore I look just like she did when she was younger.
Elizabeth, Sean, Molly, and Kate took off from Lipan to get back to San Antonio to go see the Broadway showing of Legally Blonde. They said it was really cute. That left my parents and me with Bennett. We brought her back to Austin with us and had her for the night. I took her to the Big Top Candy Store on S. Congress and Target to shop for her birthday presents. She was sooo happy in the candy store and really didn’t ask for too much of anything. We both got a scoop of ice cream and a few pieces of candy and got out of there for $5 something. At Target we bought some “toys and stuff” to keep at my apartment for when she comes to visit because she said there are no toys there. I pulled out the box labeled “Kate and Molly’s Art Box” from the back of my closet and added “and Bennett” in silver marker to make her official. We got markers, crayons, sketch pads, and a few puzzles to put in that box. She exploded its contents across my apartment in no time, but that was okay.
Sunday morning I needed to do my last long-ish run before the marathon and then we were heading to the Gristmill to eat and return Bennett to her rightful owners. We woke up around 7 and I was taking my time getting out the door to run. Around 7:50 Bennett exclaimed “Aunt Kathleen! WHY are you not getting dressed to go run?” I’d say that my mom put her up to it, but I really don’t think she did…it came straight from Bennett. So per orders from my new 3 yr old (almost 4) coach, I suited up and headed out for 10 miles by myself. I rarely run that far by myself, but it was just fine Sunday, and nice to run from home (minus the stupid hill to get home). When I got back Bennett asked if I was sweaty and when I answered yes she said “you gotta take a shower because running is hard.” I figured she was going to say because I was smelly, but I’ll take the “because running is hard” part :-).
So that was long and rambly. Oh well. I probably won’t post again before Sunday. I am excited about the race, but not the weather. I have expectations of a PR and am working on the mental confidence to back that up. I know I’m physically capable of it, but I also know anything can happen on race day. Safe to say my head hasn’t exactly had it easy the last few weeks. On top of Grandmother and Charlie, we found out my great aunt Blondie died Monday too. I don’t remember her, but she’s another one of the Lipan gang, so they will be repeating the whole routine again, less than a week later.
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~GiGi