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September

Okay, so I don't really have anything important to say in this blog. I just thought that it had been a little too long since my last one.

I did get to see my nieces this month. My brother's wife, Chantel, flew up with their 2 daughters a couple weeks ago. Her mother, Trina came with her. The girls were adorable. Aaliyah will be 4 in February, and Emily turned 2 in August. I hadn't seen Aaliyah since she was 8 months old, and I had never even met Emily.

Me, mum, Chuck, and my grandparents met them at their hotel in Portland on Thursday (the 17th), then we went out for supper at Longhorn Steakhouse. The waiter was one of the best I have ever had. That guy was good at his job. I was worried that the girls might not be that interested in me, since they didn't actually know me. As we were waiting for our table, Aaliyah looked up at me & said "Can I sit with you?" Of course, I said "yes", and she wanted me to hold her hand as we walked to the table.





Friday was a little different. We drove up to Augusta to visit my brother's grave. On the way up there, Chantel let Aaliyah ride with us & we had a lot of fun with her.



When we got to the cemetery, Chantel sat down with Aaliyah and explained to her why we were there. Although she's only three, she understood very clearly. She stood in front of the gravestone, pointed down and said "Daddy's Pete's body is down there....." then she pointed up and said, "but he's up there with Jesus". She repeated that several times. She did seem saddened by it though. She kept saying "I miss my daddy Pete, but he's in heaven, and I'm gonna go there & see him someday". She was a little bothered by the fact that she didn't have any flowers to put on his grave. Emily was too little too understand, she just ran around and waved to the geese that were down by the pond. It was very hard to watch those 2 little girls stand in front of there father's headstone.

On the way back, Emily rode with us. I did enjoy seeing my mother finally get to spend time with her grandchildren. I had cried a little bit at the cemetery, but since I hate crying in front of people, I just stood far back away from everybody until I could stop myself. I gave up on that later when I got to church and sat on the porch with my friend.





Chantel had plans to visit with Pete's other grandparents on Saturday, but it was really bothering Aaliyah that she had not put any flowers on the grave. Chantel thought it was much more important to take her back up there so she could do that.

We had breakfast with them on Sunday morning before they left. The girls were in a great mood. They were a little bit sick of pictures though, so we didn't take any, we just enjoyed the time with them.

Well, I guess I spoke too soon..... I did have important things to say in this blog.
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