Short (?) Update of the past two months

Hey there,
OK - when I last posted - my dad had died. Here is a quick (I hope) recap of what has happened since. . .

• Dad died on February 16th.
• I flew home February 17th (Mom decided to wait until spring for the Memorial Service).
• I worked in my office for the next two weeks.
• I went to a business conference the first week in March
• The next Wednesday, I drove up to pick up Mom to stay with me until winter melted.
• Thursday, on the way back home (with Mom), my youngest brother called with news that his Mother-in-law had finally lost the battle with lung/brain cancer.
• Threw my son a birthday party on March 22.
• The next day was Easter. Started out good. . . however, after many phone calls and with the help of some really really good friends, found out my oldest brother had died sometime in the past few days . . . alone . . . and was found on Easter Sunday.
• My youngest brother arrived home from the Mother-in-law's funeral Easter Sunday night - I told him the oldest was dead while he was going through customs (talk about bad timing!)
• The middle child (the brother next older than me) arrived to visit Mom at my home the Monday after Easter. He called on his way and I told him about the oldest death (again, bad timing). He stayed two nights - which meant Mom slept with me (ugh).
• The daughter of the oldest came to stay with me on Tuesday night - causing the middle child to sleep on my too short not to comfy couch (oops - bad planning).
• On Wednesday, got the daughter to finally call a funeral home to start the planning process.
• The oldest brother's dog found a new home with me and my family.
• The week following Thursday, had the oldest funeral - ugh.
• Mom went home with her sister-in-laws on Friday.
• I had two weeks at work - almost normal.
• Last week Friday (4/18) I packed up the car with my son, the dog, my husband, and drove 300 miles up to where my Mom lives. The middle brother flew into the nearest airport and bummed a ride with my youngest brother, his wife and son, up to the same town.
• Saturday (4/19) was my Dad's memorial service in the morning.
• In the evening, my youngest brother and his wife made dinner for everyone - including the not before mentioned second oldest brother who has sort of "divorced" himself from the family. After dinner, we went back to the "lodge" where we were staying (youngest, middle, daughter of oldest, and our families) and after we got the children in bed, my husband proceeded to fall asleep on the couch while the rest of us drank some beers and played some pool and generally analyized our family. However, the middle child found some whisky along with the beer and proceeded to get very authoritative (the nice word) about everything. I have spent the better part of the past week being pissed at him - but that is my deal at the moment.
• Drove home 300 miles on Sunday.
• Went back to work on Monday - for a really long week at work.

I have decided that my family has some huge communication problems, however, I have not yet came to the decision that I must be the one to try to bridge the gaps (if it is even possible). I am still mulling that one over. We are also waiting for the state-side funeral/memorial for my youngest brother's mother-in-law's funeral. Hopefully, we will be done for a while.

All I can say is that it has been a sucky 2.5 months.

It didn't help that I finally blew up at my husband this morning about how non-comforting, non-helpful he has been. I may go into greater detail later - maybe. I may decide it is totally boring - who knows.

Well, I gotta get my boy in bed - so . . . 'night!