Well, I've arrived back in Mesa after attending my grandfather's funeral back home. It was amazing - all the people that had so many wonderful things to say about my grandfather - and my grandmother too. They are inseperable in the minds of all who knew them. Pat did a beautiful job on the slide show at the end, and Kate ended up improvising one of the poems that she read - it was amazing. She has such a gift. Two of my young cousins were also impressive - especially the youngest, who asked to see the body before Grandpa was buried. Although he cried profusely, he took it better than most adults I know for someone who never really dealt with death before in his memory. He is a courageous kid who takes after his great-grandpa. I hope he can know that throughout his life. We're all going to have to work to come up to my grandparents level, I know, even though they would be the last ones to agree with that, as is evidenced by Grandma's Bible. She always felt like she needed to work on her behaviour - taming the tongue was a verse she particularly marked as "Focus on this".

Life continues here. I am looking forward to getting on with things, I guess. Being back here is harder than I imagined. I just need to keep pushing forward and working hard at both the craft and what God would want me to do personally.