A long trip with good company

Where did last week go?! Biscuit's illness (and fever) carried on through Monday and finally went away late Tuesday evening. And lucky Jeff picked it up late Sunday evening.

I worked from home Monday so I could take care of my boys. On Tuesday, I left them home on their own.

I got news Tuesday that my uncle had died. He had a stroke 17 years ago, and my aunt has been taking care of him since then. I can't imagine the strength and patience it has taken for her to be a 24/7 caretaker.

I didn't want Biscuit to miss anymore school. And I didn't want Jeff to miss anymore work, either. So I called my brother to see what he was planning to do. It's 2 1/2 hours from my house to my brother's. Then it's another 5 1/2 hours to my aunt's house.

The funeral home visitation was from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, and the funeral was at 2 p.m. Thursday. After we talked about it, my brother and I decided to drive down for the visitation Wednesday evening, then drive back Thursday.

It was an exhausting journey, but it was good to see our family.

I have to admit though, my favorite part was getting to spend that much time with my brother. Ever since we got married and had children, we don't have much opportunity to hang out together. So this trip gave us 10-plus hours in the car together.

We ate lunch on the way down, and arrived just in time to get our clothes changed and head to the funeral home. We were planning to get a hotel room, but our uncle said we could stay at his house. We saved money and got to spend time with more family.

We didn't have time to eat dinner before the visitation, so we got some breakfast food after. I was chowing down on a waffle, and I said, "When's the last time you and I had two meals alone together in one day?"

He immediately answered, "When Aunt Joyce died."

"You answered that pretty quickly," I said.

"I was just sitting here thinking the same thing," he said.

I laughed and said, "So what you're telling me is that somebody has to die for us to get to spend some time together?!"

We're not ones to say mushy things to each other, so when I texted him to say I had made it back to my house, he texted back, "I hate somebody died, but I had fun."

"Me, too," I texted back to him.