Oh Deer. Oh Deer.

On Friday, my brother and I drove to the hometown to see Grandma. It was heartbreaking to think of her in that hospital bed, missing out on family time over the holidays. She liked the tulips we brought. I showed off the scarf I finished this week and showed her my new knitting project. She got mail while we were there and she was so excited I decided I needed to immediately start writing letters to her. I keep thinking, why haven't I done that already, then I remember I was recently mired in a lefse-making-induced near-breakdown. The bad news is she seems worse... she's on oxygen and her IVs keep blowing out her veins... her skin looks papery and she seems more tired than ever. We visited her when we got there but also visited again right before we left and I suspect she'd turned down the hearing aid because we were nearly yelling and she couldn't hear anything. She was a lot more fuzzy in the late afternoon. Also she accused me of smoking. (tee hee.) Anyone who knows me at all knows that is just crazy talk!

Between visits with Gram I stopped to see my high school pals--sisters, Cindy and Cathy, home for the holidays. Cindy and George proudly showed off the video of the ultrasound for the baby on the way and Cindy looked so darn cute with her little baby belly I just wish we lived closer so I could share in this exciting time for them. Cathy was home without Shane (tending the ranch, I suppose?) and she had her 7 month old daughter Adee along. This was the first time I met their little honey and I was totally love-struck. It felt so good to be sitting in the living room with my old pals and the memories just came flooding back of all the fun we used to have and in an unsuspecting moment I was hit by a wave of thanksgiving.... who knew? I AM thankful for my friends, that they are healthy and happy and I only regret I don't get to see them as much as I'd like.

My brother was just along for the ride on this trip... wanting to see Grandma mainly and so he napped and read while I visited my friends. After we said good-bye to Grandma we stopped at the farm for a yummy meal, compliments of dad. Before long we were back on the road. At least four times throughout the day we'd been admonished to "watch out for deer" on our drive home and since I knew I would be careful I wasn't too worried. After all, I had not seen even one deer the entire trip the last time I drove home. This time was different. We spotted 13 deer on the drive in three different instances. Good news. We only hit two. Just 10 miles from my dad's place about 8 deer jumped out of the ditch on the left side of the highway and were running across. I braked but couldn't stop and managed to only hit two deer. There seemed to be NO damage to my car, though we discovered otherwise when we got home. The deer may not have fared so well. I guess, what I should be thankful for here is that I didn't get killed or total my car.... wait, that's back to that same old twisty way of thinking...