His service was in my old home town, Agawam.
So you'd know the MA Veteran's Cemetery?

Just up the road from Six Flags? (Or what used to be Riverside Park...man, do I miss that place. So much better than Six Flags!) And DH and I used to live right on the main road a few miles north of that - right next door to McCarthy's Liquors (I only mention that because many people from Agawam know McCarthy's very well

). We're glad we still live close by and can visit Dad often. I actually think we live the closest, even though we're in the next state!
Tina, much congratulations to Matt on his promotion! That's awesome!
So it's been a week now. All this week, my BIL and SIL have been taking turns staying overnight with Mom. Nobody wants her to be alone just yet. Tonight, DH and Josh are staying - this is Josh's first sleepover and my first night ever without him! I should be putting him to bed now and it's so weird that I don't have to. I suggested that maybe they could take Mom out to breakfast tomorrow morning if she'd like. She does seem to be coping well. DH and SIL have both said that they think she'll be fine - she's a social butterfly and she's very close to her cousins, and they've all had their vaccinations now, so maybe once the weather starts to get nicer they can get together more often. The only complaint we have right now is that my SIL is all hyped up about "someone needs to stay with Mom" and "we have a lot of phone calls to make," etc. It's probably her way of coping, but she's driving a few of us nuts. When everyone left the kitchen the other night except my BIL and I, he leaned over and quietly said to me, "Deb needs to back off a bit, she's making me crazy"
Last night and today, Josh has seemed very angry. I'm assuming this is how his grief is coming out, in anger. He even head-butted me in the stomach several times last night, which was quite painful with all the stuff I've got growing in there. I'm not sure yet what to do to help him. I did just now get a text from DH, he's having fun at Granna's house; my BIL and his family (and their dog

) stopped over and he's thoroughly enjoying himself. Good to hear.
It's funny how new furniture was mentioned - I so want to get several new rooms. All of the furniture in the house is my grandmother's and it's just not my taste. All dark, heavy wood. I basically want to gut the living room - well, except for the nice TV console that we bought a few years ago when we had to get the new TV. We have 2 massive bookcases, with 4 shelves that are deep enough for two rows of books (one behind the other) and 2-shelf cabinets on the bottom. We've had them as long as I can remember, so they're about 40 years old? My mother has been looking at YouTube videos and she's decided that we're going to paint them this spring. I do like to repurpose things, but this is a daunting task! I'm disappointed in the La-Z-Boy sofa that I bought when I was pregnant with Josh; it's only 6 years old and it's not holding up like you'd expect from that brand. We also want to paint the fireplace mantel and somehow reface the brick surround, and get new fireplace doors. We need to get rid of the carpet as well. It's no longer green.
I'd also like new bedroom furniture. DH and I have my grandmother's bedroom and also her furniture. Again, heavy dark mahogany. It's very nice, it suits its purpose, and we have LOTS of drawer space, but it's just not "me." But honestly, DH is a bit of a tightwad and I'm literally afraid to spend any money. I feel like I have to justify my spending. And since we like to travel, I do agree that curbing frivolous spending will allow us to have the funds for travel, but I'm getting to the point where if I'm going to continue to live in this house, I need some serious change.