Bittersweet

This past weekend was bittersweet. It was such a fun, family weekend but it's the first Mother's Day I haven't spent with my mom in about 15 years or so. Every Mother's Day weekend my mom, aunt, cousin and I walk the Komens walk in memory of my Nana. But this year neither my mom nor I walked in. Thankfully my aunt and cousin were able to walk in memory of my Nana and my parents were there to root them on.
2500 miles away we spent Saturday as a family- making money, eating great Mexican food, spending time with church family and watching bull riding. Pretty interesting day if you ask me! We had a long overdue garage sale, where we were able to get rid of some of our "treasures". The boys handled selling stuff better than I thought they would but I think that's because they were busy making money for St Jude with their lemonade stand. I was so proud of them because, after paying their helpers, they were able to donate $20 to St Jude in the name of one of P's teacher's sons who was recently diagnosed with leukemia.
We cleaned up, rested for an hour and then headed off to a Cinco de siete church party. Once again I was impressed with our boys. They hadn't taken a nap (or really even rested) yet they powered through, having fun with their friends in the bounce house and having water gun fights. It gave Rob and I a chance to visit with some of the people from our church that we don't talk to regularly. Rob also scored his own banana pudding that our pastor's wife made special for him, knowing that it's his favorite.
By the time we got to bull riding I was wilting on the vine. My sinuses had bothered me all day and I could barely breathe. All the dust in the arena didn't help. But I would gladly do it again just to watch the fun the boys had. It was a rather small event in the fact that only half of the arena was used so we got to get up close and personal with the cowboys and bull fighters. I did have a moment of "sadness" when the age of the bull riders was announced and I realized I was old enough to be their mom...but I had my 3 year old on my lap. All in all, it was a lot of fun and my favorite part was P's belly laughs every time a bull knocked the barrel over when a bull fighter was inside. Thankfully no one was hurt and we were able to stay almost til the end before E started saying he was tired.
Sunday Rob went above and beyond to make it a special Mother's Day for me. He got me flowers and the boys each gave me cards and handmade gifts. After church we went to lunch at one of my favorite places and then I came home and crashed. Rob had given me some medicine the night before but didn't think to tell me that it had codeine in it. Man oh man, that medicine kicked my butt! I slept 10 1/2 hours Saturday night and then took a 3 hour nap Sunday. Sunday evening I was still tired enough to go to bed at 9pm.
I am so glad that we get to spend weekends as a family. It's the happiest I've been in a long time and it's the strongest our marriage has been in years. I don't take for granted our family time together and I love our special memories we're creating as a family!