Why do I have to come up with a headline anyway?

Sorry. One of the perils of working in public relations is that you have to come up with headlines on a daily basis. This wouldn't be so bad if I was good at it. Sadly, however, I'm not.

Thus, the headline for this post.

Anyway, I'll quit stalling - on with tonight's topics.

We're back to Nebraska again after another trip home. David and I decided this past weekend would be a good time to head home because....

Well, we didn't really have a good reason, we just wanted to go home. Kyle, David's best friend, was home for the weekend. David hadn't seen him since the wedding, so he wanted to make sure to see Kyle while he was in the area.

I was just along for the ride. Well, actually, I wanted to get home and see Grandpa. For those of you that don't know (I know I've made a few vague references here, but haven't posted anything detailed as of yet), doctors found a couple of tumors in my Grandpa Don a few weeks ago. The tumors were in his bladder and one of his kidneys.

After they found the first tumor, he had surgery so doctors could try to find out how aggressive the cancer was. The doctors don't seem to think it's too aggressive (and they completely removed the tumor in his bladder), but are waiting on tests to confirm a diagnosis and to decide whether to remove the rest of the tumor from his kidney or to just remove the entire kidney.

The last time I was home, the doctors had just discovered the tumor in his kidney, but hadn't operated yet, so it was nice to be able to go home (post-op) to see how Grandpa was doing.

Since many of you come from farms or farming families, I'm sure you'll understand that while the news from the doctors was somewhat positive, Grandpa is still a little down in the dumps. To prevent him from getting sick before another surgery, he's been staying at home, staring at the same four walls every day. For someone who is used to getting up and working outside every day, a TV screen and four walls have become pretty boring.

It's hard to see Grandpa depressed because I don't think I've ever seen it before - at least like this. I'll never forget the day my dad died. Grandpa met us at the hospital - he told us it was bad - and then he started crying. He was sad then, but it was a different kind of sad.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying that he's completely shut down to the world. But, it seems strange because it's so different from the "normal" Grandpa. Nearly all of my memories of Grandpa are of him smiling, teasing me or my sister, working outside, at the fair or busy in the kitchen. In fact, I can't think of one instance where Grandpa was sitting in a chair, watching TV for hours on end. He's always been so energetic and happy - and, at times, almost like a second father.

And, I'm sure that's why this seems to have been extremely hard for me, too. I know it's hard for everyone else - and maybe I'm selfish for not paying more attention or asking to see how the rest of the family is doing - but, I can't help it.

David keeps telling me everything will work out, and I'm going to stick to that thought, but I sure would appreciate your prayers anyway.

Being eight hours away from home - and not seeing your family on a daily basis - means that we couldn't just spend our entire weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's. We did spend some time with Kyle and his girlfriend, Katie. David also got to see his friend, Matt, while I spent some time at home checking out Mom and Chuck's new store and taking some pictures (big surprise, right?).

Mom and Chuck finally opened their store the last weekend in September, and while I was there on Saturday, they had several customers. For now, they're only open on the weekends, but after their open house on November 20, they'll be open during the week and on the weekends (yes, that was my shameless plug for their store - if you're ever in Clinton, drive the 15 minutes out to Chestnut to stop in).

Don't worry - I didn't limit my picture taking to the antique shop. You know I took pictures at the farm, too. This year's babies are growing up so fast - it really makes me wish I had more time to spend at home, riding.

All in all, it turned out to be a nice weekend, even though we weren't able to make the rounds to see everyone. But, Thanksgiving is right around the corner and we'll be home for a few extra days. Hopefully, we'll be able to squeeze everyone in!