The visit

My visit to NJ.

It was a whirlwind of

- fixing up my sister's spare room that had an old kitchen in it to hold the furniture for my niece who was getting her own room.

- packing stuff in my mom's house

- and selling/giving away goods we didn't want.

I already wrote about the people I met with the giveaways/sells. I guess I am really good at it. My family was quite impressed. Lots of stuff in one week.

My nieces were at their dad's most of the time, but I did sleep the first night with my goddaughter, and we both woke up at the same time so we had 5-10 minutes of hanging out just us two. Which was wonderful. She's 10.

My siblings and I did some looking through things and allocated between us. My one brother exclaimed several times, jokingly, "but she's not dead yet!" I am sure I took way more than I should - I flew Southwest so had free luggage. One of my bags was 50 lbs and one 30 lbs on the way back.

And finally, last but not least, I got to see my mom. What a difference a couple months makes! She looked great. She has gained weight, and is overall happy I think. On the last day I rounded the corner to visit her, and there on the porch she was, rocking in the rocking chair as content as can be. "I like the breeze." All the workers say how nice and sweet she is. And she is. It's funny though, we were walking back to her room and some guy says hello. After he left she looked at me and says 'everyone says hello here' with this semi puzzled/suspicious look on her face. Kind of hard to describe, but a very mom expression.

I am so grateful she has the money to stay in a decent place. Me, I'll be out on the street in 40 years.