Too much on my mind

After a very long, tiring, stressful, yet almost soothing week, I'm back. As many of you know, my Grandma Beerman passed away suddenly last Friday, the 19th. I'd like to take this moment to thank all of you who sent their sympathies/condolences or even just checked to see if I needed anything. I'd also like to say how unbelievably blessed I was to be able to see Grandma one last time, even though I didn't know it would be the last time, a couple of weeks ago when Erin and I made an unschedualed stop by her and Gramps place. I've had about a thousand ideas on what I wanted to write on here over the last week so this post may be one of many coming in the next few days. Someboday says it everytime the entire Beerman family gets together but it really hit me last week...my Beerman cousins are the greatest! I'm speaking specificaly of my immediate cousins but you could say the same thing about my 2nd and 3rd cousins as well. This is a group that includes 11 of us. 9 of us are between the ages of 24 and 37 and then there are two younger ones too. We are close and really that's an understatement. Even though we're spread throughout the country (Chicago, Nashville, Austin, Kansas City, and Concordia) we seem to always stay in contact and the once, possibly twice, that we get to all be together every year is more than great! We're there to lean on each other, pick on each other, joke around, talk seriously, and have a few high balls together. Whenever we all are in the same area we always make it a point to get together for a night and talk and hang out. I don't know of many families that are as bonded and close as we are. I love it. As we sat in church at the funeral, all in one pew, I couldn't help but think, "Grandma, this is because of you. You taught all that family is the most important thing behind our faith. You taught your children that and they've passed it to us." And as we all sat on Grandma and Gramps patio after the funeral, a huge game of baseball broke out in their backyard, just like it had for the past 20 to 30 years. All us cousins playing baseball, using the clothes line pole for first base, the elm tree for second, the corner of the patio and the sidewalk for third, and the old hole from an uprooted tree for home base. Just like we always had. No steals or lead-offs, the ball is always live no matter if it comes off the roof or coming out of the tree's, and hitting the shed without a bounce is a homerun. Grandkids and great-grandkids all playing together, ages 2 to 36. All of us Beerman cousins together again...because of Grandma.