It has been a long sad spring (Arkansas)

Sorry to say that I've not kept up the blog because lots of very sad things have been going on since I last posted on April 1st.  The worst thing was the death of my Big Granny!  She passed away on April 16, 2012.  I decided that I had to drive to Arkansas because I needed to be with my family!  It was awful back in November when Uncle Dean passed away and I wasn't able to be with my family and there was no way that I was going to make it without being in Arkansas.  So on Wednesday April 18th I loaded the four girls up in the van and headed off to Arkansas (Koko stayed home with Doug and Trevor was in the hospital)  I'm lucky enough to have many friends that stepped up to help me in this time the first was my friend Sharon in Dallas that offered to watch Jazzy for me while I was gone.  So we dropped Jazzy off and headed on up to Arkansas needless to say the whole family was shocked when the babies and I showed up at Big Granny's house!  I instantly knew that I had made the right choice to drive 12 hours with 3 three year olds!   We spent time laughing and crying with family!  On Thursday the 19th was my 39th birthday!  My sisters surprised me with a cake (it was the first time in years that I had been with my mom, dad and sisters on my birthday)!  I also got a chance to hang out with cousin Gena and cousin Clint on my birthday just like old times.  I had a chance to go up to the nursing home to see Little Granny and my heart was rewarded by seeing Granny open her eyes and for a split second knew who I was!  I felt such peace getting to see that knowing twinkle in her eyes for such a brief moment!  The girls ran around the nursing home with my mom talking to all the old people.  On Friday we had the funeral for Granny it was a very beautiful spring day with a very light drizzle!  The drizzle let up enough for us to take some great family pictures! My friend Gail watched the girls for me while I went to the funeral and that was such a big help. Since I needed to head back to Austin I just went to the funeral then headed to pick up the girls and drove first to Dallas to pick up Jazzy after driving through a downpour for many hours!  Then the four girls and I stopped at Hillsboro, Texas for a few hours sleep in a hotel.  (I was just to emotionally and physically to drive the last 3 hours home) we got up early Saturday morning and made it home in time to spend time with Grandpa Efrain.