Halloween, Frida Kahlo

IMG_00000046.jpg, a photo by karlakp on Flickr.

Frida kahlo! Apparently I did such a good job with the unibrow that people thought it was real. ha!

Just...breathe

2013 is a bitch.

I am trying to hold it together but it's kind of hard right now.

I have moved into the house, and it is beautiful, absolutely stunning.

So, yeah, that's my morning coffee and the view. Nice. 

But, my Dad had a stroke on Sept 28th. A big nasty, massive stroke. We were due to close Monday, and move Thursday. Rich came from Norway to close and help with the move, that had been planned for over a month. I stuck around in Houston on the word that the stroke wasn't that bad, Mom told me in no uncertain terms that I should stay here and focus on what I was doing, until my brother called me on Tuesday to say, yeah, it's bad, he had a second stroke. So I left the move to Rich and went to Missouri to be with my family. 

So, that's basically where we are right now. Dad's still in hospital having all kinds of therapy to rebuild him, and we have hope, but it was really touch and go for a while there and with a stroke this bad, we don't know what his prognosis is. The house, my primary focus for SO LONG, is now something I just need to get through, a thing to worry and add stress and more stuff to deal with. I stayed in Missouri for a week, we drove back and forth to the hospital every day to see dad (200 miles round trip) and I came back because I have to get the house in some semblance of shape before going back to work Monday (I took all of what is left of my vacation to be with my family, though I will say my boss is being HUGELY understanding and so very cool with me right now.) Dad will be in hospital for likely another 3 weeks and my brother will stay with Mom most of the time. I will go back when Dad gets out to help out. 

I guess I've reached a point where the stress has broken, kind of, like, I can't BE any more stressed so, I just won't be. It has helped crystallize what is important (Dad, my family) and what is not (everything else.) 

So that is what's up. 2013 is officially a bitch.