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Ok, yes, I have Fifth's Disease. What is a mild virus in a child produces weeks of massive joint pain and fatigue in adults. Ouch!

We had the funeral for Grandma Ruth yesterday. It was a very long weekend...

To refresh: I got sick before last weekend, and spent the entire snow-storm in bed, fever and exhaustio, etc.

Tuesday morning I went in for blood work, which I did not get back until late last night.

Wednesday after school, we took the boys to Sturbridge and gave them to my dad. Then we returned home with Sofia. I felt horrible, but eventually we went to dinner with friends and hung at their house all evening (since David was upset that we didn't go to NYC).

Thursday morning we hung out at home, relaxing and puttering. David hooked up the 5disc changer to the downstairs TV, so now we can watch DVDs downstairs. I made dinner, and we were watching "Fiddler on the Roof"...

...when David's mom called to say his grandmother was on her way to the hospital. About 45 minutes later it was confirmed, she'd passed away.

Commence funeral prep. We had to pack, and figure out what our job would be (food for shiva) and comfort his sister and cousi and notify lots of people.

Friday we eventually got the car loaded and left here areoun 1:00. Got to my sister's house at 3, in time to watch "Mama Mia" (which was really funny and cute!). Then we pulled the boys aside to tell them about Grandma. Sammy started to cry softly, while Micah said "Oh no! Can we not talk about this?"

Dinner at my sister's house, then back to sleep at my parents'. Saturday morning we took all the kids (including my nieces) to shul.

In the afternoon, the 4 ig kids hung out watching TV at my parents', David took Sofia to see his other grandmother, and I ran errands and had my nails done.

Just as we were getting ready to go meet my sister and BIL for dinner, David's mom called, falling apart, so he went over there instead to help set up. They went through lots of photos.

The boys slept at my sister's, and Sunday we left Sofia with my parents while we went to The Crown to get the food platters. Got everything set up at Grandma's house, waited for family friend to come stay at the house, and headed off for the cemetary.

LOTS of people showed up! The rabbi was running late, so we were there a long time. The ceremony was lovely. Since it was both Chanukah and Rosh Chodesh (New Month), both usually joyous occasions, the rabbi was able to show how appropriate it was to have Ruth's funeral on that day. Every time her name was mentioned, the sun burst through the clouds - that was very funny!

I was proud of the boys. Micah knew exactly what part he didn't want to see (the casket being lowered into the ground), and stayed through much of the rabbi's talk before he walked away. Sam, on the other hand, stayed through everything and did several rounds of shoveling (Jewish custom is to bury the dead, literally).

Back to the house, where not as many people came (the non-Jewish friends and relatives had holiday parties to get back to), but we still had quite a crowd.

My family took the kids back with them, so David and I were able to stay all afternoon through the evening shiva minyan without dealing with them. We left grandma's at 9, left my parents' before 10:30, and made it home by midnight.

I'm SOOOO tired! And my hands are killing me. I keep losing feeling in my fingers, which is making everything very tough.