I'm Back!

I'm back home from my long weekend out to visit my grandmother.  I can't hardly express how glad I am to be back in Colorado.  Maybe it's because I grew up here and so I'm just not used to that weather, but I find the heat and humidity in Arkansas to be very oppressive and uncomfortable.  It's a beautiful state with so much green, but I feel kind of lazy when I'm there.  I used to visit my grandmother in Illinois, but she's 93 now and can't really take care of herself any longer (or protect herself from my one remaining worthless, loser uncle) so she had to move to Arkansas to be near my cousin.  Colorado was also an option for her, and she's claimed that she wanted to live here here whole life; but if she actually did something she wanted to she'd have less to complain about, and we just couldn't have that.  Do I sound bitter?!  Spending time with that woman drives me up a wall, and makes me feel like a bad and impatient person.

I guess I owe my cousin big-time since she's with her on a regular basis and deals with all of this stuff.  I told my mom that while I'm trying to be understanding because I realize my grandma has lost three of her four children, I have a hard time with my grandma and her constant negativity.  My mom, who's a much kinder and generous person than I'll ever be, told me that we just need to be supportive because my grandma's had a really hard life and has been depressed for a long time.  Now, this is my dad's mother, so my mom's mother-in-law to whom she's so wonderful.  My mom's not even related to her by blood and she's nicer to her than I am.

But it was nice to spend some time with my kids and it was great to see my cousin.  She and her husband are building a house on a nice piece of property.  The only blight right now is that the woman from whom they bought the property insisted that her house remain up until she dies.

Here's their house and you can see the old house in the left corner.

The old house sitting in front of their new house.

The peaceful view from their family room with my daughter looking at paint colors.

I love the Crepe Myrtle flowers.

Arkansas does have some nice lakes and trees.

Of course the other problem I had on this trip is that we ate too much, and moved too little.  So I wasn't very pleased when I stood on the scale this morning and saw that my weight went back up.  I wasn't terribly surprised, just disappointed.  So I'm going to have to really focus on my food this week if I intend to show any progress with my weigh-in this coming weekend.