A busy week

We had a couple of those 5 am calls this week.  "Mom, Callum threw up. Can you come in?"  And I would be an idiot to turn down an offer like that.  So it's up and dressed and driving into Phoenix.  It's a 40 minute drive but interstate most of the way so an easy drive.  I hardly have to wake up!  Thursday John roused himself and went with me.  It was a good thing as we each held a baby and they slept for 3 hours on our chests.

Have read a couple of good books this week as well.  The kind you stay up late reading because you don't want to put them down.  Half Broke Horses by Jeanette Walls was a fascinating book about her grandmother.  She wrote it in the form of a novel but the stories and facts are true.  If you liked her writing in The Glass Castle, you'll like this book even better.

Then I read The Help by Kathryn Stockett.  A piece of fiction set the civil rights era telling what it was like to be a black domestic in a southern home.  It was a time when black women were trusted to raise white children but not trusted with the family silver. 

Thursday night I went with Margaret and Erick to hear Dinesh D'Souza speak on the topic "What's so Great About Christianity".  I can't tell you what his point was as he spent a great deal of time with personal attacks on renowned aethiests such as Richard Dawkins.  But it was interesting and I'm glad I went.

This weekend in Indy there is a memorial service for a dear friend.  Margaret Turpin finally lost her 4 year long battle with cancer.  She was at the Mayo clinic here in Phoenix so we got to spend some time with her and her family in the final days.  I first met Margaret and Gil helping with flower sales in the Herron-Morton neighborhood.  Then Margaret and I began playing canasta with JoEllen Rowe and Desma Prentakowski.  We drank a lot of wine, shared a lot of stories and played a few cards.

Margaret and Gil and John and I began going out to eat every Friday night after work.  We tried to discover 'new' restaurants.  While most were good, we did stumble on one to avoid.  We still were laughing last month at how Gil handled finding a cockroach in his burrito.  Our adventures expanded to overnight trips to Chicago, St. Louis, and southern Indiana and then a week long trip to Mexico.  One summer the four of us even built a garage.  Margaret was always positive, easygoing and talkative.  I can still hear her telling me a story in my head - about school, about her children or about her grandchildren.  I'll miss her.