rest in peace, miss bea :)

it's been a rough couple of weeks. a very good friend of our family passed away a week ago today. her funeral was yesterday, and of course, i sang. it's always so much harder when it's someone you knew, and knew well.

miss bea was one of my husband's ladies. he did some work for an older couple we used to ring bells with and they recommended him to her to do some odd jobs around the house. she was a widow with grown children, most of whom didn't live nearby, so she kinda became a surrogate grandmother. when chris was doing work for her, the kids and i would sometimes go with him, and then we'd take miss bea out to dinner with us. or we'd invite her over to our house for dinner once in a while. she invited us out to dinner to meet her family when they were in town. she was just a really nice lady that was really easy to talk to who really loved our kids.

so when she fell and broke her hip and was in the hospital, her daughter called us, cuz chris was more than just her handyman. and when she slipped into a coma after the surgery, we went to sit with her at her house while her children held the vigil waiting for the waiting to be over.

but it wasn't until the calling hours that i truly realized how much our friendship meant to her. chris and i walked in, and a complete strange came up to me, gushing, and said "you must be kym! the jewelry designer, right?" we had no idea that miss bea talked about us to any and everyone *smile*. but because of the close relationship we had with her, they had alexander and isabelle listed in the obituary as her "very special grandchildren" *smile*. i'm just glad that we were friends and able to share that special part of her life.

i was also very touched, when her daughter, katherine, gave us one of the quilts she'd made for her mother to remember her by. it was one that hung at the top of the stairs and was admired every time we came over.

we basically spent all day yesterday with the family, at the funeral and lunch after, and then at the house just talking. the house seems so empty without miss bea there. she will be missed.

OUCH!!! what pain!

so, today was a really great day, and a really crappy day. it was awesome, cuz i met up with my local street team, steel town etsy, and they are fantabulous! i'm so lucky to be affiliated with such talented crafters and such wonderful people. but after i got all hopped up on caffeine at starbucks, i had to go have my ultrasound guided fine needle biopsy of my thyroid nodule.

now, first off, "fine needle" is relative. i was imagining something akin to a acupuncture needle. boy was i wrong! it was a regular needle. not as big as something they'd use for an iv, but definitely not what i'd call "fine". but it wasn't the needle stick that sucked the most -- it was the fact that once it was in, they had to wiggle it around to collect cells to biopsy! OUCH!!! but i survived it, and the doctor took it to look at it and came back to inform me that they were fine, but he needed MORE CELLS TO SEND TO THE LAB TO BE PROPERLY LOOKED AT -- meaning they had to stab me in the throat again! &%*&$$&^#$@@!!! of course, i had my husband come with me to "hold my hand," not realizing that i'd literally need someone to hold my hand! he and the doctor both like to crack jokes to lighten the tension, but i challenge any of you to try to laugh with a needle in your throat! i could barely breathe or swallow, cuz i discovered early in the procedure that movement of the throat area causes the needle to shift more than necessary. did i mention, they don't use anesthesia for this procedure? :) apparently they used to, but they discovered that it hurt more when the drugs wore off than if they just stab you in the throat repeatedly without. i wish they'd given me the option to find that out on my own! :)

but granted, i'm grateful to know that the cells they found were fine and i don't have to have surgery or anything. they'll just keep an eye on them with a repeat ultrasound in 6 months and go from there. but it's been 9 hours, and my throat still hurts! i've gotta take some ibuprofen before i go to bed. i knew going in that there was a 95% chance that they were benign, so i wish i'd had the option to just leave them un-biopsied if i knew how painful it would be! at least they give you an epidural for childbirth! :)