Cleaning the Closet(s) Part 2

It is now 1:17 in the morning at the Bailey house.

Matt, Mom and all the animals are sound asleep. Me, not so much. I don't really know why because I am really exhausted both emotionally and physically. I think the reason I have such a hard time winding down is that in the Bailey house for such a long time sleep was not something you did. You took care of Dad and you looked after each other and you tried to take care of the rest of the things in your life. In my mind, when I am here, I should be doing so much more. It seems so wrong that Dad is not here to look after anymore. It seems we have so much free time on our hands. It isn't that we don't have stuff that we could do to fill the time it just seems so quiet and that is going to take a lot of getting used to. While I would not want Dad to suffer any more what I wouldn't give for one more day or conversation or dictation for one of the daily to do lists.

We are deep into reviewing and cleaning out and getting ready for a yard sale (hopefully soon). Here is just a few things we did today:

1. Matt and I loaded up lots of trash and took it to the recycle center. No more old TV entertainment center, chairs and all that trash outside by the trash cans. That looks nice.
2. Mom cleaned up the living room by mopping and dusting and mopping and dusting.
3. Maggie helped by bringing us lots of toys to play with. Seriously she things she is helping us out.
4. Matt and I boxed up some paperback books for the yard sale.
5. I finally figured out a way to go through Dad's closet. Matt was in there with me and we went through every item in the closet and saw if first it might be something that Matt could wear. We did find a few Polo's in Matt's size. There were also a few Ralph Lauren Polo's that Matt couldn't wear but I know a handsome 40 something year old that might could. And as we went through each item of clothing, we moved the items that did not fall into those categories to the bottom shelf. As I moved the items to the bottom shelf, it seemed like for every thing that I found or moved I could say "I remember when Dad wore................" Memories, always the memories.
6. I boxed up the Dad's shoes and the sweaters. I found a baseball cap, navy with Captain embroidered on it. I hung that up in the closet.
7. I took pictures of the closet in the phases of doing so it helped me to know that I will have those memories of the way things were. Taking that apart like I said in the previous post seemed wrong. I found a lot of interesting things. I'll post the pictures when I figure out how to get them off my cell phone. Probably will be sometime in 2009.
8. Matt transferred all of Dad's ties to his closet. I'm really hopeful that one day soon my sweet brother Matt will have lots of use for those ties in the way of a job interview or job of some sorts.
9. Mom and I went to see the movie Mamma Mia! It was a really good, funny, movie.
10. Mom and I came back to the house. I ate some leftover CiCi's pizza that Matt got. Matt not too happy that his sister ate his leftovers.
11. Mom organized the paperwork regarding the air conditioner and we listened to the Mama Mia soundtrack. I went through two baskets of paperwork. You know after loosing someone you realize that there are several little things that that person takes care of that you don't really realize until after they are gone. Little things or big things like household repairs and keeping up with all of that and knowing who to call. I'm thankful for our friend Randy. He is coming to look at the a/c on Tuesday.

And after all of this, Mom was ready for sleep but my mind was moving way too much so we went back into her room and worked a little more in there. It is taking shape. There is still though so much to go through and decide what to do.......... dressers, drawers in the bathroom, medical drawers from when we cared for him at home............... But I am excited about the progress we made today. Huge hugs to all of you. Thanks for continuing to love us and pray for us and hold us close. We need you...........