We Are Family



Aunt Suzie and Uncle Kenny organized a dinner for all of us at a winery in Newcomerstown a couple weekends ago.  It was such a beautiful evening and we had a great night talking and catching up with family we don't get to see very often.  I'm so thankful to them for putting that together!

 

 

I love these people.  Each one of them holds very distinct and dear memories for me. Thanksgivings at Aunt Krick's house, Papa's mounds of mash potatoes, helping decorate a giant pine tree, playing with cousins, watching movies, hearing war stories, listening to Nan sing songs while she was cooking or cleaning up dishes, Easter bunny cakes, crochet hooks, church, lots and lots of big hair, laughing...always lots of laughing, Christmases, weddings, birthdays, visits, meals, shopping, cooking...

 

So many good memories.  Some sad but still good, like every family has I imagine.  One that sticks out to me is when Papa died and Aunt Suzie and I were the only people at the hospital with him while everyone made their way into town.  I don't know if I could have stood hearing the news and staying there and waiting there without her being there with me.  Strange how something like that can bind two people together.  I experienced something similar with my cousin Julie when my other grandpa died. And the two connections I have with these two women as a result of sharing such important, intimate moments in our lives are unbreakable and unshakable to me. 

 

 

  



 

 

Beautiful nights filled with family and love and laughter.  This is happiness.

School Days



Sniff, sniff. 

 

Sam started kindergarten last week. 

 

Baaaahhh!!!!



Big boy school...I cannot believe my boy is at the big school every day now.  He seems to love it, has a male teacher who is silly and fun and plays guitar.  I know he'll have a great year.  But seriously, kindergarten??

 

A few days before he started school, he had to have two teeth pulled.  Two permanent teeth were coming in way behind the baby teeth instead of underneath them and, though we gave it a good month, those baby teeth never loosened up.  So the dentist easily yanked them out and, with the help of some bubblegum-smelling gas and novocaine, Sam never made a peep.  My brave boy.  He wasn't even scared or anxious about it. 

 

I, on the other hand, was on high alert and completely prepared to take the dentist out at the knees should he hurt my boy in the least.  But the doctor knew what he was doing and Sam never had an ounce of pain.  

 

That night the tooth fairy visited Sam's room for the first time.  Sam thought the fairy dust she left on his tooth box was pretty cool, as were the two gold dollars she gave him for his teeth.  (I'm glad the tooth fairy doesn't buy into this inflation crap.)

 

 

Then there's the whole topic of my baby girl starting preschool in a couple of weeks. 

 

My baby.  In preschool. 

 

Ugh.  I can't discuss it yet, though Lena is very ready to go and make new friends and stretch her mad alphabet skills. 

 

In preparation for her big day (sniff, sniff), I took her to get her very first professional hair cut. Up to now I've always cut it myself, but preschool is a special occasion which demands a special hair cut, right?  She liked sitting in the chair and adored looking at herself in the mirror. 

 

My sweet girl...



This is not her official first day of school photo, but when Sammy was getting his taken, she of course wanted one too.  She is so beautiful.  And is getting so big...

"....Is this the little girl I carried...."

Catching Up

Things around our house have been pretty crazy lately. But more on that later.

Due to said craziness, I haven't had much time to devote to blogging, despite many blog-worthy moments.  So what follows is a photo depiction of our super awesome last days summer.

At Rolling Ridge Ranch in Amish country with Mom and Dad, Lori and two of her boys and our two.  (Rich had to work.)  Such a bygone, low key place. No flashing lights or computers or movies or cell phones.  My kids need more of that kind of fun...everybody does, I think.  And boy did they love it!

  

 

 

While in the Amish country, we stopped at a huge store where I bought this awesome new table runner.  Love all the colors so much! 

 
Next it was an evening at the fair, complete with the Lego village supreme, popcorn and cotton candy, giant slides and rollercoasters, animal barns, flea market barns, people watching and pony rides.  Good times.

 
More harvest from our garden.  It has been extraordinary this year!

Finally, last night at my company's box at the Clippers game.  We won!  Sam warmed up to it eventually and had lots of fun.  But when we first arrived he was less than enthused, as evidenced by this photo stream. 

 

Lena, on the other hand, was very enthusiastic about it from the start!  That girl is very in touch with her emotions.  :)

 A lot of fun days and good memories, which are my favorite kind.    

Ordinary and Extraordinary

I updated the blog today - changed the header to a photo of our family's Chucks (taken by Karen Harris during a recent family photo shoot), revised my blog description and tweaked my profile a bit.

Ordinary life.  Extraordinary love.

That sums it up for me. 

Days drift into the next.  Branches hold leaves, then snow, then buds.  Holidays bring hearts, then eggs, then flags, then pumpkins, then reindeer. Songs are frequent.  Laughs are easy.  Prayers are prayed.  Tears are dried.  Inches are grown.  Shoes are too small too fast.  Meals are devoured.  Miles are driven.  Jobs are worked.  Books are read.  Kisses are generous.  Lives are lived.

It's a life familiar to millions of people.  An ordinary life.

Often I feel the weight of its sameness.  It can hang heavy on my shoulders.

Then I'm reminded of the love. 

The extraordinary love that I feel for and get from the people God has placed into this ordinary life of mine, those people who fill up and sometimes break my heart, who stoke the fire in my soul.  The love that brushes the weight from my shoulders as if it were feathery instead of leaden and allows me to close my eyes and breathe deeply and recognize the unique beauty these ordinary days are full of. 

I recently had a conversation with one of my oldest and best friends about getting bogged down by the everydays and forgetting to take the time to be still and watch the moon or dance in the rain and stretch the internal freedom we sometimes feel we have to suppress to live these ordinary days.  Thanks, Jen, for that conversation. 

In the end we decided it's all about balance.  Give and receive, do and rest, work and play, sacrifice and reserve.  Balance and awareness - I think those are the keys...

Keys to making the ordinary the extraordinary.