Thanks!

Thanks to everyone for the comments, the emails, the kind words, supportive thoughts and prayers. I appreciate them all. We've been home about a week, and I'm slowly regaining my footing. My sleep patterns are a little bit messed up, but that's not really surprising; my sleep patterns are very sensitive to stress.

One of the things that I brought home was my mother's crystal. She gave it to me a few years ago, but since I always flew back-and-forth there was no good way to get it to me. We flew to Arkansas, but I inherited my mother's car, so we drove back. That allowed me to bring home the crystal, some of my childhood books, my mother's sewing machine, and a few other things. I just started unpacking the crystal today. I don't have any memories of my parents using it, so unpacking isn't as difficult as baking a new cake recipe was a few nights ago.

My mother loved to cook, and loved for me to cook, too. We'd talk about any new recipes that I tried, and I often called her while I was cooking to ask a technique question. I even called her with questions that I could easily figure out the answer to, just to involve her in the process. She was always eager to hear about the taste test! Tuesday night, I made a new chocolate cake recipe. Then I made Cherokee Fry Bread. Then I made egg salad, a staple around our house. One reason I kept on cooking, one thing after another, was that I was on the verge of becoming overwhelmed with grief. When making the cake, I had a question that I would have loved to have asked my mother, but she wasn't there to call. It was a very sad moment for me, and I wasn't really prepared for it, so I just hauled out more ingredients and made something else! By the time I finished cooking and cleaning the kitchen, the intensity of the grief had lessened and I could better deal with it; if it hadn't, I'd probably still be in the kitchen, stirring up something!

I mentioned that I don't have any memories of my parents actually using the crystal. My dad bought it in the early 70s while he was in the Navy. For years, it sat on shelves in the closet. Many of the glasses still had the labels on them. John and I have decided that we will not just use them for "good" but we don't know when we will use them! There are Zombie glasses and martini glasses, champaign glasses and flutes, old fashioned glasses, cordial glasses and liquor glasses. There are brandy snifters and shot glasses. There are some glasses that I can't yet identify. I guess we'll have to start drinking more! LOL!

Thanks again for everyone's kind words and thoughts.