Day 156 of 365 Days of Being Thankful



          Today I am thankful for these two cards sent by my kind and thoughtful sister-in-law Pennie.  She is just the nicest person I have ever met.  The first card is a Get Well card she sent because I was in the hospital with pancreatitis. She always writes a sweet little note in her perfect Catholic School penmanship!  I always got excellent grades in Catholic elementary school except in penmanship, I would always get a 75 in it! 
The second card was a Thinking of You card and remembering Amy card. Inside the card Pennie wrote.......Remembering Amy, one of the true treasures in our memories- and thinking of both of you with love--We are all better for knowing her.
I couldn't agree more with what Pennie wrote.


I just LOVE what Pennie wrote.   Pennie lost her own teenage sister wen she was a teen. She saw how much her parents suffered.
   Today I picked up Olivia after Cosmetology school. The song came on.........Baby are you down, down ,down.  I started shaking my arms and dancing in my seat and telling Olivia........."C'mon, get down Olivia!"  Olivia totally lost it and cracked up. That is not my normal demeanor but you have to shake things up now and then and always keep them guessing!
       Since I was going out for a meeting, Dan and Frankie and Olivia went to Geno's Steaks in Philly.  Olya stayed home to work on her last economics test.  So far, she has a 93 and a 99 on the two tests and this is her last one.  She really wants to get an A in Economics. Olya will do what it takes to succeed.
        I had a bereaved parent meeting last night. It is always a special feeling when I am with other bereaved moms and I do feel their pain.  My friend Kathy is on the right, she lost her son to drugs.  Kathy and her husband Al gave me a Coke bottle with the name AMY on it to take to the cemetery. They are so nice! I hope no one takes it. Marianne is on the left, she lost her only child, a daughter, to breast cancer.  We just look like 3 normal friends hanging out and having fun.  Our connection is so much deeper due to our grief bond of losing a child. We sometimes meet for lunch outside of the formal meetings.  It helps me to be with them. We all totally get the deep grief and the truly deep heartache.
Marianne is raising her three grandchildren, two teens and a 10 year old.   We had a balloon release and had dinner together
 


Two of the moms in the group have lost two adult children.


         We all brought food for the dinner.  I made a tray of brownies.  Olivia and Olya bugged me for a brownie so I gave them each one and then filled the tray with chocolate peanut butter cups.   The butterfly cookies below were made by my friend Anne.  Priscilla and I met her at a yard sale and invited her to come to the group.  Anne lost two adult children within two years.  She didn't want to take the cookies home so I took them and gave them to Olivia to take to Cosmetology school tomorrow.  The cookies are delicious and they are so pretty to look at! I am not allowed to eat sweets but I tasted half of one.  I guess that is a mighty big taste if I ate half of one!!!  There were some sandwiches left so I took a few small sandwiches home.  Dan and Olya each ate one right away.  I gave Frankie one for lunch at work tomorrow.  Olivia cracked up that I put it in a lunch bag and wrote his name on it!
        

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