Day One-

[Tabbiekat]

14+hrs to go till I will be reporting day one, won

It has been a very emotional past few days with the celebration of life for my husband (Grumpy) taking place on Saturday. My cousin arrived in town Thursday night, my husbands non-blood little brother showed up around noon on Friday, my husbands ex and their son showed up Friday night. All n all things went really well. Saturday when I went to pick up the mixed meat and cheese platters the day shift discovered the night shift gave mine to the wrong person. I went home with the fruit & veggie platters, two single meat platters and went and picked up the 3rd meat platter they quickly made for me an hour later. The flow of guests worked out perfectly. I had 14 seats available in our living room and I do not think we had more then 16 or 17 people in the house at any given time with about 30 different people stopping in at some point during the day. His son took quite a few items home, out of everything I said yes to my husbands ex or son taking home the hardest was giving his son the St. Christopher necklace. It was one he got years ago when he first started driving the big truck and my husband always gave them to the special people in his life. I always wore the one he gave me and his whenever he was in the hospital and had to remove his. I put his on the day he died. I did gift it to his son and hope he cherishes it like his dad did.

One thing I did pull out of the closet today was my 25" plush Grumpy doll. I thought it was only 17". I got it 7 or 8 years ago, but it was the "I will only pull him out when you die" item, since Grumpy was 21 yrs older then me, we both knew his chances of dying before me were likely, I just was not ready for him to go so soon. I started smoking again after my husband died 2 months ago. It wasn't until a few hours later that I remembered the Grumpy doll. I promised myself then he would not come out until I quit smoking. Well I had my last sickarette last night, I did not have a desire for any of my typically 3+ smoke breaks this morning. I pulled Grumpy out of the closet. My reward for saying hello to my forever quit.

Hold tight to your quits

Tabbie