notes of a new military wife: The Great Uncle Pat.

Wow, this month has been hard. It started out amazingly with a trip back home to Utah to visit family for a week. (the post about that will follow)
but this post is not about that.
this post is about the phone call my dad got during my trip to Utah about my uncle going into the ICU.
His liver cancer had spread and they could not do the surgery on his liver because it was too damaged from the cancer.
He passed away November 12th which happens to be bandy's birthday and my brother, Mike's birthday.
Bandy and I celebrated the day before because we knew Pat would not be here much longer. I had only just made it home the day before and we debated on what to do. I felt strongly that we needed to attend the funeral. We didnt have a lot of money.. we hadnt been paid yet and i did just get back from a trip, but we knew we could make it work. we prayed about our decision to go and knew it was what we needed to do.
So we packed our bags and headed out the next morning, bright and early.
We traveled across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and finally into north Georgia. We made it in 9 hours, which isnt too bad but quite a long drive.
Georgia is absolutely beautiful. I couldnt help but think that it was like something from a fairy tale. The leaves all different colors, the sky gray for most of the trip, it even rained during the funeral. There were so many people there who loved Pat, and who came to show their love and support. Im so glad i was able to go. My uncle was such a funny and fun-loving guy. He was the kind of guy who had a pair of golden... testicles hanging from the trailer hitch on his truck. My uncle John, (the youngest brother of the 3, it went Pat, Michael (my dad), John) got them all polished and the truck shining for the procession. He was just that kind of guy. the one who could make jokes that made your mother blush but got away with it because of who he is. I will truly miss him and will always feel sad that Jeremy never had the chance to meet him. I am, however, VERY glad we were able to attend the funeral, so he could see him, and meet all the other amazing members of my family. I feel closer to them now and that is so special.
So now that we are back, and Thanksgiving is around the corner, i am only hoping things settle down, but i have a feeling they are going to stay busy until the end of the year. Im glad though, it was a pretty calm summer and i needed the break. So here we go, bring on the chaos because the holidays are my favorite time of year!
I will definitely be missing snow this year. I thought i would LOVE never having to drive in it again and i definitely am, but i miss the quiet nights of snow and hot chocolate and a fire. hopefully we can get out of the 70's soon and into colder weather. im ready for winter!
so what i will be posting soon, is going to be in chronological order. First off, Halloween. (i know, im sorry) then the trip to utah, and im sure other posts that im forgetting. But here are the pictures from my trip to georgia... enjoy! sorry they're not edited or anything, my photo shop disappeared. im working on it.