my dad's oldest sister, aunt charlene, passed away on monday. she had bone cancer but actually died of a combination of kidney failure and heart failure. my parents had just stopped to see her in hospice on sunday and the doctor said she was better and would be moving back into the nursing home on monday and would probably be strong enough to go back to her home in 2 weeks. but apparently, God had other plans, that we humans weren't aware of until Monday when He took her. it is so amazing how quickly our loved ones can be taken from us.
i went home to ohio by myself (dave stayed here) and i attended the calling hours last night and then funeral this morning. i just got back in town and i could have gone into work for like 2 hours but considering i haven't had anything to do for....6 months or so in there i don't really see the point. but anyways, enough about all that....i had a great time seeing my family over the last 24 hours.
i spoke with aunt charlene's daughter-in-law, leslie, last night. i always enjoy talking with her. she's the one whose husband died a couple years ago at the age of 50 or something like that. leslie told me that our christmas letter about becoming debt free meant so much to her and has been her inspiration this year. she said that she made her daughter meredith read it, pray about it, and do it. meredith said her mother makes a lot of people read it and keeps it very handy. leslie said she used to listen to dave ramsey on the radio years ago. not to sound rude or anything, but i sure wish that she and her late husband dave had told us about him years ago when she heard him on the radio! which is why i feel even more passionate about sharing our story with our friends and family and pretty much anyone who will listen now. you never know who might really, really need to know this stuff. we sure did!
also, uncle dave told me that he is really proud of what we've done. it was really a boost to hear all this since i've been so down lately. last night dave also had a great talk with brad, who is continually improving their situation. it's so exciting to see all this come from our passion about finances, which came from dave ramsey's passion about finances, etc. how awesome.
the funeral this morning was lovely. my grandma's brother spoke about aunt charlene and how they grew up together, etc. a lady from her church who would sing while she played the piano spoke about their times together.
i drove back here today. stopped at a cabinet outlet store in richmond. they had some good deals but it might be hard to come up with all the correct cabinet sizes we need and have them match with their selection.
oh, speaking of the house, we had mark (brad's dad) come over tuesday night. it was kind of a reality check. we have a LOT of work to do before the house will be ready to sell. like probably 6 months of work. neither one of us wanted to admit that until mark was here. we have to paint every room and ceiling, remodel the kitchen, possibly the bathrooms, replace all the flooring except for in the great room, fix the gutters, pressure wash the house and the decks, stain the decks, patch holes in the siding, move the hillbilly attached garage, plant flowers, put down mulch, re-lay the "sidewalk" in the front on top of a nice bed of sand, sand and finish the floor in the front room and hallway, etc, etc, etc. replace some doors inside. clean everything a lot. ugh. i don't even want to think about it. i don't even know where to start. and yet that's exactly what we need to do. start. it will probably be a year from now until we could actually move. and we won't be able to visit family much cuz we will have to spend every spare moment fixing up this house. it is a frustrating realization.
at the same time, i'm wondering what i want to do with my life. and we're talking about having children of course, as we have been since we were 17 years old and had just started dating. i'm not really willing to have a baby though if financially i have to keep working as an engineer. not to mention that daycare for a newborn here costs more than our house payment. i'm tired of realizing every year that it will be one more year and then one more year and then one more year. when will this trend stop?
for now i will enjoy the thunderstorms. and take more pictures. i drove through 3 neat ones between richmond and here. luckily i had my camera.
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