October 2011

October 2011 was a strange month in many ways and a great month as well.  It was also emotional.  Dad decided on October 3, 2011 to stop doing chemo treatments since they were not working to shrink the cancer.  Although we knew that with his type of cancer it would come to this point, we all felt like we had been slapped in the face.  No more treatments?  It's hard to face what that really means.  But it was time for Dad.  He knew it and we did too.  So, Dad chose to live his last few...whatever time left....(he was told he had until Christmas at the latest)....doing things that he enjoyed and spending it with the people he loved. 
We did a family photo shoot in the middle of October on a beautiful fall day.  Jenn Young took the pictures and did an amazing job.  I am so grateful that we have these pictures to remember this time in our lives and to be able to see us all together. 
We did some more family lunches with the boys and I driving down to Monson a few weekends in a row to have lunch and play outside with Haley and Emily and to spend time with Pa and Grammy.  It was unimaginable to me that we only had a limited amount of time left to spend with Dad.  The kids knew about it and took it in stride.  They were sad but spent every last minute with Pa happy and having fun, just like Pa wanted. 

We spent a lot of time in Monson in October. The boys and I spent time there and I spent time there alone as well.  I was so lucky to spend about a week with my mom and dad and with my sister, just having family time and doing chores around the house.  Lindsey and I even removed all the wallpaper in Mom and Dad's dining room and painted it! 

One weekend we had a Mom, Dad, Jen and Lindsey weekend and it was FUN!  Lindsey and I slept over for two nights and just hung out together and had breakfasts, lunches, and dinners together, did yard work, watched movies, and just enjoyed spending time together. Plus we carved an awesome pumpkin.  Well, Dad did most of the work! 

On October 29, 2011 we all got clobbered with a huge snowstorm that dumped about 12-24 inches of snow on Massachusetts and poor Monson had a tough time with this storm!  Here in the Berkshires we never lost power and it was just a normal snowstorm.  But in Monson people were without power for days and days.  My parents were one of the last of the residents in Monson to get power back - they were in the dark for 7 days.  Good thing Lindsey and Chris came to the rescue with their generator.  It was crazy.  I wasn't even there but I tell you it was crazy.....On the plus side, Lindsey and Chris had to work (see, this is MY selfish plus side) and Haley and Emily were out of school for the whole week so they came to spend time with us!  It was great to have them here for that long.  They had their own bedroom in our guest room and moved in for the week.  We did a lot of fun stuff like played in the snow, went trick or treating (I think for the first time ever for all of them in the snow!!) went bowling, watched movies, went to a Mexican Fiesta for Eric's class at school, bought and played board games, played spies and then lots of other fun things.  Kyle, Eric, and Aiden had to go to school for many of the days that the girls were here and were excited every day that they came home and their cousins were here!  Haley and Emily came on October 30 and stayed until November 3rd!  It was a really fun week with the girls.  Not so much fun for Mom, Dad, Linds, and Chris....:(