don't know where to begin ...

just when I am determined to figure out this whole thing called life - LIFE INTERFERES!!!

Saturday afternoon my beloved grandfather passed away after complications from a heart valve replacement. His procedure took place about 3 1/2 weeks ago and while the surgery went beautifully and the replacement valves looked great and were doing their job (as far as the ct scans showed), his lungs simply could not recover from all of the going-ons. After a really good week of recovery, he started failing and in the last week was returned to CCU and in a matter of days things went from bad to worse and worse and worse until we lost him on Saturday. While it is devastating to lose such a terrific man, and a wonderful grandfather, there is praise to be given that he is no longer in any pain at all. Our daughter asked to say blessing the evening he passed away, and it was as follows: "Dear God, please take care of Pop-pop...and I hope we can see him again soon, but not too soon. Amen" Now is simply the time to take care of the arrangements and then the time to mourn will begin.

Yesterday was Beachdude's 5th birthday. Talk about a bittersweet birthday!! My baby (my last baby) is 5!!!! How that is humanly possible, I have no idea ... but he is one awesome kid! Before my grandfather had his surgery, we had planned to go to the circus and chucky cheese with my parents, my aunt and their grandchildren. We decided Pop-pop would be upset with us if he knew we cancelled the plans because we were sad, so we decided to follow through with our plans. And what a wonderful day we all had!! You see, there is nothing a child's birthday and Funfetti cake cannot improve!

All my love to my grandfather ... and I will go fishing and eat clams casino with you again someday!