I tried to come up with a good title for this post, but none of them seemed to work.  For the last little bit, I've been working on cleaning out our 2nd room which we use as an office.  We've also been using it as a storage space.  So much so that it got to the point where we couldn't see much of the floor.  I decided to start tackling it because I knew that it was going to be there, in the back of my mind bugging me, until I took care of it.  One of the main reasons that it has been on my mind is because of things that Mom has been going through with the death of Grandpa.  It's been almost a year now, but it's been a year of stress for her.  She was given the task of taking care of getting Grandpa's house and land ready and sold.  But there's been a lot of things she's had to try to organize and go through.  It got me thinking that if something happens to Rob or me, I want to have things organized so that it won't be too much of a burden on family and they'll be able to find the things they need.

So, that brings me back to the process.  A lot of it is a little difficult because much of it isn't mine, so I don't know what is important to keep and what is fine to get rid of.  I looked back at some of my blog posts and realize that I've never said much about Rob's life before we got back together.  As some of you know, he was married before.  Her name was Leslie.  I went to their wedding reception and they seemed like a good couple together.  Well, about a year after they got married, she suddenly passed away.  About a year and a half after that is when Rob and I started dating again.

As I've been going through the boxes in the office and closet, I've found several pictures and belongings of Leslie's.  Rob was the one who put stuff in the office closet, so there were a lot of things I had never seen before.  I knew there was probably some of her things in there somewhere, but I wasn't sure what or how much.  It doesn't bother me that he has these things.  I understand.  I just don't know what to do with some of them.  If they'd had children, it'd be easy because I would just put the stuff aside to pass on to them later, but because there weren't, where should it go?  It's hard because I'm trying to be sensitive to his feelings.  I just don't know how sensitive I need to be.  It's tough because I haven't been in this situation before.  It has been interesting going through some of her things though.  It has made me wonder how similar we are.  I didn't know her when she was alive, and so sometimes it's hard to get a real understanding of who she was.  Some of her things explains it a little.

It's been a few weeks since I started this post.  I successfully made it through all of the stuff and have most of it organized now.  It was interesting to sit down with Rob and ask what of Leslie's could go and what he still wanted to keep.  It wasn't as hard as I expected it might be.  He seemed to do okay with it.  Of course, I picked a time that he was in the office with me and was on the computer, which I think helped him to not think too much.    

It's interesting to see where I've come over the past couple years.  I'm still not sure where Leslie fits with me and with our life, but I don't feel the insecurity about her that I used to.  At least, most of the time.  I think I'm growing.  I guess we'll see how much I continue to grow.