Missing...

my mom a lot this past week or so. I was thinking about what to get her for her birthday last week before I realized what I was doing. Her headstone was also finally placed this last week so it was a little bit of a shock and seeing pictures of it made her death seem more 'permanent.' I stopped at the Chocolate Cottage for lunch yesterday after running some errands and was almost crying in my mousse. It's the kind of place she always dreamed of opening someday in an old house, with little tables for two, coffee and tea, and a European menu with delicious crepes and desserts. and lots of chocolate! I could almost see her sitting across from me talking about ideas for her own place and what she would do differently. It's places like that and the garden center down the road or when I want to call her and tell what the kids did that day when it hits me that she's gone and I won't see her again until we meet in Heaven one day. Bittersweet sorrow. So I went on a little quest to find some pictures of my mom (I've had an empty frame in my kitchen for the last year waiting to put her pic in it; sometimes I am my mother!) and of course out of hundreds I found only 5 pictures of her. Here's one from my wedding with her two sisters on either side: