What a day!!

Started with playgroup. I want this year to be the best playgroup we can make it.

I think it went well.

I got home in time to get changed. The babysitter arrived and I was off to my stepfather's funeral (with a stop at the chemist to get dstepd's meds sorted for her respite stay- stupid DHS regulations! )

I was rather stressed. My hand was shaking while I signed the condolence book. I saw Mum briefly before we went in. My sister and stepbrother were there too. I took this as my chance to make amends with her. Dstepd's friend's funeral in December made me realise that if something happened to my sister, I would regret never speaking to her again. There was only 4 months between the friend and my sister. It wasn't a rash decision. I had been thinking about it since then and was trying to get the courage up to write her a letter. I took my chance today.
I'm not saying we'll be best buds or anything, but being able to be a family again, be able to all get together in the same room without my other two sisters feeling like they are walking on eggshells, will be really good. It's been a lot of years since we have all been talking at the same time. Over 8 years.

I saw my Uncle (Mum's brother) and his wife and My Aunty (Dad's sister in law) as well as a few other people I hadn't seen for a while.

I also saw the golden haired step daughter in law! A brief hello before the service was all I had to suffer. I don't like her. I'm guessing as I have been an absent daughter for so long, she wouldn't like me too much either. Since her comment to me was something like "it's been a long time" Ummm... try "I haven't seen you since my mother's wedding 10 years ago!" There was never a lot of effort to try and get our families together, even when we were talking. But she was there for my mother and stepfather. She can have the job. I did it for 16 years after my Dad left, time for someone else to take over.
She might be a lovely person, but when all I got was her shoved down my throat on the few conversations I did have with my mother after she got married was how fantastic she was and how they were flipping houses and how lovely their son is (hello, how about your other 9 grandchildren, and 3 greatgrandchildren?) all the time telling me what a bitch her stepdaughter is (an old friend of mine, mind you), as well as the brief conversations I had with stepdaughter in law at Mum's hen's night. I don't want to really be associated with her. Besides, my Mum will love anyone who will do stuff for her, give her lots of attention and not expect anything in return. I hope she's not expecting my mum to call as often as my stepfather did, she'll be very disappointed.

Oh and my sister in law was there. OMFG, she will take any excuse to go to a funeral. She's my mother's AVON lady, FFS!! On a positive note, she might be too busy to go to 4yo's birthday party! Yay! :-p

I went home feeling very positive about the day, my stepfather had an amazing, full life and I don't think he would have passed away regretting a thing, well maybe accidently referring to my mother by his dead wife's name once early on in their relationship... oops! He had been sick for about 8 years, he and his family was blessed to have the time that he did. And I think they made the most of it.

Anyhoo, that's my ramblings for the day. Quite a positive one, even if it was a funeral.