Grief and Hope Lodge and Twins...Oh my!

I did a wordless Wednesday post previously but I decided that I can't leave today wordless...there is a lot going on right now and I would rather be vocal about it.


On Monday I attended my first Grief and loss Support Group meeting. I had my hesitations about it (one of them being that I am the Youngest Member there) but I am really glad I went and will continue to go to the meetings twice a month. What a lot of people don't realize is my Grandmother lived with my family for many years (from when I was 9 until a little bit after my 16th birthday) and in many ways she was like another parent for me (and my siblings). As I watched the first DVD session I felt myself nodding along with a lot of what they were saying on about what comes along with the Grieving process. Some of the things that impacted me the hardest was when they talked about how you can be fine one day or for a few days and have grief hit you like a big wave. (This has happened to me quite a few times). Another thing they advised was not to make any big decisions right now if you don't have to. This is something I needed to hear because with all of this I have wanted to run away from a lot of things that were familiar to me and start fresh as I am trying to figure out who I am after this loss. It was also nice to be around people with similar experiences who understood what I am going through.

Another big thing for me this week was going through Orientation today at the Minneapolis Hope Lodge. This is a lot like the Ronald McDonald house but for patients and their caregiver over the age of 18. It is nestled right on the U of M campus and people who stay there live at least 50 miles away from where they are getting treatment and do not have to pay anything. They have 9 paid staff and the rest (about 200) are volunteers. I am going to be putting in 8 hours a month and am really excited about it. I can sign up via the internet and have signed up through the beginning of January! I was pleasantly surprised to see Christmas Eve and Christmas day having all their volunteer slots filled. Some days I will help out for 2 hours or so after work and some days I am just filling in for 4 hours on a Saturday or Sunday morning.


I am very happy to see the MN Twins in the Playoffs! I was supposed to go to a Game this year but was in Montana during this time so a friend and her boyfriend got to see them. I am really hoping they can sweep this series and make it to the World Series!

We're gonna Win Twins
We're gonna score
We're gonna win Twins
Watch that Baseball Soar!
Knock out a Home Run
Shout out Hip Hooray!
Cheer for the MN Twins Today!
Have a good rest of the week!

-Jackie