Some good things that have happened :

I just got off the phone with my mom and dad ... it was a good conversation, very hopeful and positive and I feel so much better about my mom's frame of mind.

One of my dearest friends called last night, all the way from Australia. It was so lovely to hear from her, and such a big help. She lost her mom to a horrible, sudden form of leukaemia a few years ago, so she has also been through the huge shock, and the frenzy of making travel arrangements. (Her mom was in the UK when she fell ill, and my friend was in South Africa.)

Several local friends also called yesterday, to offer to have the kids and/or Bobby over while I'm away. I'm so grateful to all the people who're being so kind. Makes me cry even more though.

Emily got her FCAT results today, and she got perfect scores in the reading and math sections. While I think that standardised tests are a complete and utter waste of time, I still feel very proud that Emily did so well on them. So she got a couple of certificates for that, plus she also got a "President's Award" certificate, signed by George W. Or at least, there's what looks like a hand-written signature above his name. I was telling my mom about it and we both said at the same time "You'd think he'd have better things to do than sign certificates". Emily did not find that crack at all amusing. Apparently this award goes out to kids at the end of elementary school who've always received straight A's. Emily's absolutely over the moon about it.