What a nice weekend....

After a very exhausting work week - I taught the training class, by myself, alone, all week - I was more than willing to embrace a nice, relaxing weekend.  Thank goodness that is what we had.  We were productive in a lot of ways though. We took the new car to the dealership for some regular maintenance, and I did steam clean the floors.  Okay, so maybe we weren't TOO productive, but Patrick and I spent the entire weekend together, and I'm thrilled.. :-)

Yesterday we went to Ikea.  It was a lot of fun. We went at a time when probably most people were at the parade.  Since we had no interest at all in Gasparailla, we enjoyed a quiet walk through Ikea. It's funny because every time we go there we hardly buy anything. We spent about $16.00, and as usual I was happy with my napkins that I purchased. I did find some bedroom furniture I really enjoyed, so maybe in the future we will sell our current set. I love our bedroom set, but our tastes have changed somewhat. I'dbeen wanting to go to Ikea again for quite some time, but it's been sort of difficult emotionally since my sister and I were planning to go to Ikea the weekend she ended up hospitalized and.... well, you know the rest of the story. I am happy we finally made the trip.

Wednesday is what would be Kelly's 46th birthday.  My family and I are donating to the SPCA - her favorite cause - in her name. It's hard to believe that it's almost her birthday, and even more hard to believe that in March it will be one year since she died. I'm not sure where the time has gone. Such a cliche but true. I am very thankful in a lot of ways that this past year has gone by in a hurry. Though there is no right or wrong grieving period, I knew in my mind that things would be considerably easier to deal with at the year mark. And, while I think of my sister every single day and miss her terribly, I no longer have the stabbing gnawing feeling in my stomach.  Sometimes, but not constantly. I think back to those days where I would sneak away and cry every day, and I'm beyond elated to know I've moved forward. In fact, together, my parents and I continue to move forward, and I think we are even close than ever before. I wish I could say the same for my brother, but some things you cannot change.

Today Patrick and I ran some errands and had lunch at Tijuana Flats. I'm not really ready for work tomorrow, but now that the training class is over, I have to begin to prepare for my own very first class. It's tentatively scheduled for
mid-February in Ocala. I had a great experience with this last class, and I'm amazed at how exhausted I was from training 18 adults all week. I definitely need to build up some endurance!