My brother normally does a "weekend wrapup", so I guess I'll try one today.

We went to Augusta & Lewiston on Friday afternoon in order to do a couple of errands and meet up Dwane's brother, Shane, who was visiting from Florida. We had a buffet dinner at Governor's, and we had a good time. The food was good, too, and by having a buffet, we were in and out of there pretty quickly.

On Saturday morning, I did a 4-mile in home walk with boosted intervals before going to Rachel's funeral. Oh my! What a gut-wrenching experience that was! Ronda had told me that there would be lots of balloons, because Rachel really loved mylar balloons. When I walked into the church, there were bunches of balloons surround by tons and tons of pictures of Rachel. In the sanctuary, Rachel's carriage was there, filled with some of her favorite things. The casket was draped with a white cloth and there were several items on top of the casket (her hearing aides and glasses, maybe?), and some of her favorite toys were in front. Dr. Faulkingham, Rachel's pediatrician (and also the doctor of my boys) gave the eulogy. After the service, Mike and Ronda took mylar helium balloons outside. They had attached notes to Rachel to the balloons, and they released them to heaven. Oh, no. I'm crying again thinking about it. The grandparents released balloons, as well. The was a huge luncheon after the service, but we (Dwane, Mom & I) didn't stay. I hugged Ronda, her mom, and her sister, and then we quietly left. I was ashamed for awhile, because I caught myself actually sobbing during the service, while Ronda was holding it all together (at least on the outside). I think I was given a lesson about "bearing each other's burdens". Obviously, Rachel's death will not affect my day-to-day life, but it has certainly influenced my thinking. Oh, if I could just take away just a fraction of Ronda's pain. I know what it's like to lose a Dad. How much worse must it be to lose a child? My heart was breaking for Ronda.

Saturday night, Shane and his son, Preston, came to visit. My mother-in-law had come from Mechanic Falls to watch the boys during the funeral, and she made a crockpot of meatballs for supper. They were good! Her SO, Normand, picked her up in the afternoon.

Which brings me to the next part of my story. My mother-in-law has a female guinea pig. We have a male. She decided they should mate. Gloria loves animals, and used to breed and raise Himalaya cats. I think she would breed just about anything she could. I mean no disrespect--she just loves animals. Anyway, it was somehow decided that the breeding would take place at my house, instead of hers. I'm not sure how that happened, but her Cherokee is now living with our Buddy. This is probably too much information for you all, but the mating rituals of guinea pigs is something else. The male walks slowly around the female, and then starts shaking his butt. Caleb thinks this is absolutely hilarious. I try to keep Eben away. You might also be interested in knowing that a female only is interested in a male for about 6 hours every 18 days. And during this 6 hours, they like to mate every 4 minutes or so!!!! And what happens when the female isn't interested?? The male tries anyway. Every 4 minutes! That means during my 3 mile work out this morning, I had to watch an attempt about 10 times! This is ridiculous. She's picking Cherokee up again at Caleb's birthday, and if the deed hasn't happened by then, Mom's gonna be out of luck. I can't handle it for any longer than that. I did ask her if I got a "stud fee". She said I get a baby guinea pig. Oh goody! The twins really love Buddy. Maybe I'll give them a baby guinea big for their birthday!

Yesterday was church, and I don't think there was anything out of the ordinary yesterday. I didn't do my workout yesterday. The first time in a week that I had missed. There is just too much going on before church to try to squeeze in 45 minutes of exercise.

Tonight Eben has a Cub Scout Pack Meeting, and then Miss America is on (my favorite pageant). Ma--did you remember to get cardboard pizzas and cinnamon buns? I've got the cinnamon buns, so I suppose I'll be throwing them in the oven for Dwane. They are something I can do without, but he loves them.