Ugh...

More family drama...it's so hard. Emmett's Dad's side of the family is going through so difficult stuff right now. I can't really talk about it here, I don't want to violate their privacy, but suffice to say, it is a painful and difficult time right now. Emmett has been stretched pretty thin with this and some work issues. The good thing is that he's been leaning on me, accepting my help, and I appreciate this.

I do feel that we are making some progress again, but am wary of another backslide....

Anyway, say a little prayer that all this turns out okay.

On other fronts, Tommy has decided that he is Tomas-cito. Now when you ask him his name that's what he tells you. It's cute. This is really an incredible time for him. He is speaking in full sentences now and watching him reach for the words to string them all together and make the sentence is fun. Also, he is now at that age where I am never sure just what is going to come out of his mouth.

He is very independent. He is always saying "by myself" - meaning that he wants to do things by himself. For a while he was saying "by himself" - it was so cute - until he realized that he was supposed to be saying "by MYself". Stubborn, he is.

Great weekend!

As I'm writing this I'm, as usual, totally exhausted, having been up almost 24 hours. I kept telling myself I would get a nap before I went to work tonight, but it just didn't happen. It's okay. It was totally worth it. I had a really good weekend.

Friday I spent getting my room cleaned up a bit and actually got caught up on the HUGE tower of laundry that had officially become taller than me. My friend Doug came over in the evening and we hung out, ate pizza, and talked. It was a nice, mellow evening. I hadn't seen Doug in a couple of months so it was nice to catch up.

Saturday I had to hit the ground running because I had two parties to go to. Emmett came over at 8:30am and picked up Thomas. Desmond was in town and Emmett was taking Thomas to watch the crew races down in Redwood Shores. Apparently they had a great time and the weather was fantastic. I went to Orinda for Sara and Henry's engagement party. It was a great party and the food was yummy - the desserts especially were soooo good!! Ugh - how am I ever going to lose this weight at this rate?? It was so nice to see Henry's family again - they are the greatest people. Sara's family is awesome, too - her Dad especially is really funny. I rode over with Deb and Christian which was fun because we went in the Mustang with the top down, enjoying the sunny spring weather. It was a great time and nice to see Henry so happy, relaxed and confident.

After that party Deb, Christian and I rode back to their house to freshen up a bit and then head out to get some wine and ride over to Eric and Heidi's for their housewarming party. Their house is incredible!!!! It's way up in the hills above Los Gatos and has views of the valley that are really beautiful. They have something like 5 bedrooms total, 3 bathrooms, living room, family room...it's huge! Three stories and the top two have these huge decks that wrap around. There's also a hot tub. It's just amazing. Of course, they paid the tall $$ for it, but they sure did get a lot of bang for their buck. It was a pretty mellow party, just a few friends hanging out and having some wine, relaxing in the jacuzzi and talking. We stayed pretty late and I was pretty loaded by the time we got back in the car. Between my high heeled shoes and the steep driveway, I thought I might not make it. haha I spent the night at Deb and Christian's.

Sunday morning I took the Caltrain home (we missed the first Caltrain and had to wait an hour for the next one to come). Emmett picked me up in SF at the Caltrain station there and we took Thomas to Golden Gate park for the afternoon. It was a perfect day!! We had so much fun with Thomas. The place was just full of kids, nice to see so many people out enjoying the great weather. We spent several hours there until our hunger drove us to go home. We went back to Emmett's place and hung out for the rest of the evening. I made a tuna casserole which turned out okay and we had hors d'oerves of hummus, brie, and crackers to take the edge of since we were STARVING after the day at the park in the sunshine. I got a little bit burned, but it's fading a bit now.

All in all just a truly great weekend! Let's hope this week provides more of the same!

Love,
Melissa

I'm back and still hanging in there

There is not much time to post today. It's been three months since I've written and so much has happened, but I have to keep this short.

I am still keeping my head up and facing one day at a time. Nothing is sure right now. I'm back working nearly full time at the hospital and have left my EBay job - it was helpful, I did learn a fair amount that I will (hopefully) be able to apply to my business.

I have moved. I'm living now a couple of miles from where I was before, in an apartment. It's a pretty cool place, with two big bedrooms and a little bit of ocean view. Emmett's nephew Corey and his girlfriend Maryann are my roommates right now - saving up for an extended trip to Europe.

Emmett lives two doors down. Not sure at this point if that will be a good thing or a bad thing, but, for now, it's really nice. Maybe soon it won't be so nice, but we'll just keep taking it one step at a time. More on that another time.

We had a truly wonderful Easter. Emmett's Mom came up and the six of us (Emmett's Mom, Corey, Maryann, Emmett, Thomas and myself) celebrated together. Saturday we all (except Maryann) went to the farmer's market. After that, I did some running around on my own and took a nap (had worked night shift the night before) and then went down to Emmett's to decorate Easter cookies and dye Easter eggs. Emmett's Mom watched Tommy that night while Emmett and I went out on a little date - our local coffee shop (4 doors down from our apt. building) was having live jazz, so we went there for the music, dinner, some wine, conversation. We had a good time. Sunday morning we went to church, which was, regretfully, not the most enjoyable part of the holiday. The music was, ummmm...Emmett commented that they were "obviously not auditioning for the choir". He is so blunt sometimes it makes me laugh. It was true. They were B-A-D bad. But an "A" for effort, so I feel bad saying that. Tommy was a hellion in church. Emmett got cranky because he didn't eat anything and Emmett's Mom got upset because he didn't want to stay for the Easter egg hunt. Truth be told, I really wanted to let Tommy try out the hunt too, but I didn't want Emmett to get any more worked up, lest it end up ruining what may be one of our last holidays together as a family. We took some family photos and then went back to the apartments to have Easter dinner - cooked at Emmett's, served at my place. After dinner we had a little Easter egg hunt for Thomas at Emmetts apartment - Emmett's Mom brought these little plastic eggs and some little plastic animals to put in them for prizes - Thomas LOVED it!!! We all played charades, which was way more fun than I was expecting - I haven't played that game in years! After that Emmett's Mom headed home, Corey and Maryann went to the movies, and Emmett and I hung out the rest of the evening together until it was time for me to go back to work.

Emmett and I have been in weekly counseling for the last three months. We still have not reached a conclusion about whether or not we want to have a relationship, although the counseling has helped us a lot.

Well, it's late and I'm tired. I'm sad about the Pope, but glad he is at peace now. It will be very interesting to see who will be selected next.

Gotta go, it's almost time to go home and I'm exhausted.

Love,
Melissa