So my great-uncle Arturo passed away today. He had been struggling with lung cancer for a few months now, but interestingly enough it wasn't the cancer that killed him; it was a bout of pneumonia.

My dad is pretty upset but doing what he always does when he's upset over something - squashes it down to the bottom of his toes and walks it off. There is a lot of stuff behind this and I would like to elaborate but I shouldn't and especially not on a public journal. Suffice it to say - there is a lot of misguided guilt there with regards to great-uncle Arturo's brother Danny and I don't want to elaborate too much but my Dad has some very hard feelings against the man (Danny not Arturo) and is going to have to squash those down as well as great-uncle Danny will most likely be at the funeral. Which is interesting because I thought he was in jail or something (again, LONG LONG story).

This is my grandfather's brother we are talking about here, just to make it a bit clearer. I don't really know how to process it. I knew the man and loved him because he was family, but didn't feel incredibly attached because he is all the way in Fall River MA and I'm all the way here. We used to visit twice a year though, and he was nice and had the kind of laugh that made you feel like you were in on some delicious joke.

I don't know what else to say, except that I feel a little numb, and it isn't just the cold doing it this time.

My mom needs to have a bunch of external cysts removed. they just up and started growing out of nowhere. They are huge and very noticeable and she says they are also very painful. She measures the pain as a vouchsafe against the dreaded "C" word.

My heart aches and I am tired and I am worried about too many people, none of them being myself.

I need a vacation from life.

I stumbled upon this site, and went through the photos themselves, then waded through them this time hitting the "caption" button at the bottom of the screen so I could read about these incredibly heart-breaking photos of a mother's journey helping her son battle cancer.

I'm exhausted but had a great time. I was officially up for 24 hours when 4:30 hit. There was no sense in getting to sleep until I got myself home. My legs are also very angry with me right now, I walked way more than the alloted times given to me by my team captain. I was just so restless and since there wasn't much else to do, a-walking I went. There were luminary bags lit as night fell, and they had arranged some to spell out the word "hope".

Relay for Life was pretty good. The luminary ceremony was moving, as was the Survivors walk. Reading the bags, there were so many people I knew, but this one hurt the most:

This weekend is the Relay for Life, thus the subject header for this post. I'm really looking forward to it. I missed last year's go around because of a wedding or something. It's a great night and pretty inspiring - I love watching the Survivor's walk and the Luminary ceremony later on. You are hella tired by the end of it but it's great otherwise. Plus, I live what - maybe 2 blocks away? So I can crawl home the next day with no issue hehe. Or get S to come get me as I'll have the tend and whatnot to deal with - I'm not about to cart all that stuff on my back.

Our team is called the Sassy Support Sisters and we are all wearing tiaras and boas and slinging plastic martini glasses (full of water or whatever, unfortunately haha).

K had his first soccer game this week. He has... some work to do. He tends to skip after the ball rather than run, and if he kicks it he doesn't go after it... and um... he gets distracted pretty easily but then again it's only his first game.

Went to visit Senor & Senora D last night to get pictures of their son for a collage for his buck and doe - the photos are TERRIFIC and hilarious. It was a nice visit, then again they are nice people and are the type that will always welcome you into their home with open arms. The minute we got in though of course Senora was feeding the kids - we Portuguese women have this thing about feeding people.

Time to get the kids packed, and then go to the paper to have the buck and doe advert ordered, and uh... lots of stuff. Then work!