Aaccktober

Here I am again - stunned that another month is just... GONE! Admittedly, I have been away most of the month. I just returned from yet another week away, visiting my mom in Madison, WI. We had a great visit together. I even managed to get her out twice to two of our fave restaurants. She seemed in really good spirits. We played games, did crosswords, chatted and laughed. Her situation hasn't really changed much. In fact, I'd say it's gotten a little worse and being her sole caretaker during the day presented its, er, challenges. It will help to have Chris along in some respects and he will go with me next time - in the spring. (Oooo, that almost sounds ominous, doesn't it? Here we are, at the threshold of fall and I'm talking about spring. And we all know what must come in between... I'm SO not ready for that yet! It seems like we just got done with, with, you know, the "w" word.) But, all in all, it was a good time together.

I stayed in a nice hotel in the evenings (I was at my mom's from 10 a.m. to 8-8:30 p.m. daily) and discovered their belgian waffle maker on the 2nd morning. Yikes. And one of mom's caretakers, our beloved Gail, gave me an hour and a half out one day and I went to Archiver's. Oh, joy! What luxury! :)

I did miss Dustin's 29th birthday party and a great family gathering on Sunday night. :( I'll share a photo or two that Chris took in a future post. Of course, I had to run down to squeeze my two granddaughters the day I got back. Ahhhhh. I was definitely suffering grandma withdrawal...

And, speaking of withdrawal, I'm sooooo longing to get some paper scrapping done. My scrap room is so lovely, with some new goodies awaiting my attention. But, I have yet to get in there. It's hard both catching up from being away and preparing to leave again - all in the same week. And, guess what? I'm doing that very same thing yet again this week. On Wednesday - after having been home exactly one week - we will take our annual fall excursion north to the lovely Cedar Run Inn for three days, two nights. Fabulous food. Gorgeous scenery. And relax, relax, relax. It's always wonderful and I do look forward to it.

But THEN....then I can come home and BE home for, well, til spring! And scrap room, here I come!

I did manage to get another digi done today for One Little Word's present prompt: open. It's pretty, um, open. It's kind of hard to know how much is too much to say sometimes. But I do want to be honest at the same time and share myself. So, here's my layout:

(Click on image to view larger. Page credits: distressed edge overlay by Trish Jones; green stitches, heart by Gina Marie Huff; circle overlay by Jan Barlow; texture brush by noctourniquet texture tiles 1; gold brad by LivE for Jessica Sprague; paper hearts by Patricia Christensen; cross stitches, ticket by Heidi Williams; muslin strip by Jen Wilson; Fonts: Artiststamp Medium (quote); Bleeding Cowboys (“open”); Century Gothic (journaling)

Seeing that it's after 1:30 a.m. (even though I can sleep in tomorrow) I feel the need to crawl in bed. Later...