Anticipation

The time is coming again, that last-minute pre-travel jitters that I always have to experience in order to decide if I have everything I need. There were a few things that could have been helpful, but I didn't quite get around to, but hopefully, I'll have those worked out for the next time, which will be, incidentally, only a few months later. That's how I work, trial and error; try and retry. I realized at the beginning of this month that it was just as well that my volunteer thing didn't go through--never contacted me, but I suppose I did it a little too late to be included this year--because my brain is running all over the place, trying to figure out if I have everything set up. There are a few more little details to address, but they should be simple enough.

It feels like the whole end of the year will involve going all over the place. Once I'm back, we're talking about going to the southern part of the state for an open house on one of our historic buildings in St. George--the temple, built by the early settlers of the state. I also have an aunt there, my mom's sister. We haven't seen her since the funeral, so I think we're hoping to plug in a visit. That will complete the circle for me, because I will be visiting family (my mom's brother) in Southern California for my trip next week. There was one point we were talking about visiting my aunt's grave. I'm not sure my uncle has seen the grave stone in person yet, being so far away, so I think it would be nice to do that for him.

There are plans also to return to California again, this time with someone, and I'm given the assignment to take charge on this one, since I've been there more often. I will be the unofficial tour guide, but hopefully, it will work out. I'm trying to set aside a day for us to visit the family again as a something different between all of it. 

I said I was needing to be around people more, and I guess that's going to happen. I hope things work out well, and feels worth all the going to-and-fro. I'm thankful for these opportunities, and I'm glad the family is flexible enough to let me go. 

I often hear of families breaking up over having a disabled family member, but that has not been the case for mine. In fact, my brother has become the center of our family. He has brought us together, for through him, we have learned to work things out when needs arise; and we have learned to share in the "burden" of taking care of him. The quotation marks were inserted there, because we don't see it as a burden. A lot has been given up for his sake, but we all agree that it is worth it. Life definitely wouldn't be the same without him.

Mike and I as children.