My grandma died yesterday afternoon.

She'd had a stroke 2 years ago and had various health problems since then, but she was doing OK, despite her inability to speak. She was in assisted living and I saw her at least once a week, unless she was in the hospital. Monday night, she started breathing shallowly. They took her to the hospital and did some tests that indicated she had a blockage in her aorta. No way to operate, and even if they could, it would be prolonging the inevitable. She slept all day yesterday and died peacefully with her four children surrounding her.

I'm really sad, even though I know she's with my grandpa now. She'd missed him terribly since his death 10 years ago.

If you're the praying sort, please say one for the soul of my grandma (and godmother.) She was a lovely woman and I loved her.

What Disney Princess are you?

Belle You see past the bad things in people. You also don't settle for someone who is below your standards. You care about your education and you love your family. It takes a lot to win your heart, but once someone does they can count on you to be loyal.

How do you compare? Take this test! | Tests from Testriffic

I'm not so into Disney, but I thought this was a fun quiz. Besides, I knew the result before I ever took the test. Belle really is the least princessy of the princesses. Not such a silly girl.

I've been helping my mom clean out my grandma's house a lot lately. It's a lot of work, but I have come home with some treasures. We have also found a lot of trash. Literally trash. I mean, empty plastic bags, old pill bottles, random stacks of crumpled tissue paper. The house looked like it was in good shape (it's a beautiful old house), but you look a little deeper and it needed a lot of organization. It's SOOoo much emptier than it was, but there's still a long way to go. I don't know what the plan is for getting rid of the last things no one wants. The house needs to be sold to someone who will love it and take care of it. It's a historic home that has been completely restored. It's been 2 years since grandma had her stroke and moved to assisted living. The house needs a family again. It will be sad to see it go, but it will be good to have someone in there taking care of it the way it should be.

These crack me up.

McCain and Obama paper dolls. I got the heads-up on these from my regular Dover books e-mail. What fun we could have with these! Heeeee.

Barack Obama Paper Doll Website
http://www.obamapaperdoll.com

John McCain Paper Doll Website
http://www.mccainpaperdoll.com

Mosaic Meme

The kids go back to school Thursday. Everyone is excited. M (11) is trying to go down there every day anyway just to open her locker and walk back home. Nutty kid. The schools are at the end of our street. It will be nice to be so close. Registering them last week was the nicest school registration experience I've ever had. Everyone was so nice and helpful. They seemed genuinely happy to be there. The school facilities are great, too. It's wonderful to have school be such a positive place!

I don't know that I'll be blogging more once they're back to school, but I will finally have the time to go to the grocery store by myself and work out without having people interrupt me 18 times in an hour. In the meantime, here's a fun meme to tide you over.





Here's the meme:
Type your answer to each of the questions below into a Flickr search. Choose your favorite image from the first page, then copy and paste each of the URLs into the mosaic maker (3 columns, 4 rows).

The questions:
1. What is your first name? (Lara)
2. What is your favorite food? (lasagne)
3. What high school did you attend? (Kapaun Mt. Carmel, had to drop the Mt. Carmel to get results)
4. What is your favorite color? (blue)
5. Who is your celebrity crush? (no big ones, but I went with Milo Ventimiglia)
6. Favorite drink? (Diet Coke, yes I know it's evil)
7. Dream vacation? (New Zealand)
8. Favorite dessert? (chocolate cake)
9. What do you want to be when you grow up? (artist, still figuring out what that means)
10. What do you love most in life? (my family)
11. One word to describe you. (creative)
12. Your Flickr name. (bzzlarabzz, had to go with bzz)