august 30

Hi,


Lots to catch up on.  I'll try to be brief...


We've had a lot of extended family time lately -- picnics, visitors, and, of course, Grandma Donna's funeral.  My good humor wore off by the time Donna's funeral came around, and I was not entirely pleasant to some of the folks there.  I felt waves of conflicting emotions -- sadness, anger, frustration, pity, and even a hilarious-church-laughing-fit thrown in for good measure.  Suffice it to say, I'm glad it's over.


I facebooked this, but I want to capture this moment here too.  On Saturday, post funeral, we had a very lovely family walk through some equally lovely gardens in Janesville.  We sat to enjoy the moment, and my sweet little 4 year old said, "When I grow up, I'm going to be a worker-guy.  I'll build us a house here.  We will be married, and we can sit and watch the fountain alllll daaaaay looooong," and he touched my cheek.  That, right there, right then, I needed.  


My cousin and her girlfriend and their doggie have moved along.  They stayed here a few days recently during their whirlwind tour of the midwest (they live in NYC).  It was great having Julie here.  The kids love her, and she loves them.  Julie convinced me to go to this hippie music fest in Kentucky that she attends every year.  In an inspired moment, I suggested my bro and sis-in-law join us.  So, the boys and I will head out of town on Thursday this week (yes, the second day of school) and drive to Indianapolis where we will pick Mark and Aisha up at the airport.  We will then drive together to Berea, KY to camp.  With a bunch of aging hippies.  I kind of can't believe I'm doing this.  We'll head back home on Sunday, sans Mark and Aisha, as they will return to the east coast with Julie and Melanie.  Or, as I summarized in an email to the group about this: We will leave Madison to drive to Indianapolis to pick up Baltimore to camp in Kentucky, and New York will take Baltimore back home.  


I'm a little anxious about this trip -- how will the kids do in the car?  how will we handle camping for 3 nights?  will it rain?  will the mosquitos be awful?  And then I get excited about the trip -- fun to spend unexpected time with Julie and Mel and Mark and Aisha, good to mix things up every once in a while, fun to show the kids another part of the country.  I predict we will be nice and exhausted by the drive home on Sunday, and hopefully they will be too tired out to bicker too much.  Or maybe I'll be too tired out to care. 

In the middle of all of this extended family fun, our little lives here keep on moving on.  Our love affair with the pool continues to be full and passionate.  Today's visit marked our 62 visit to family swim this summer, obliterating our previous record.  One has several tackle football practices under his belt, and that has been as fun as expected.  He loves it even more than flag football, and he looks very cute in his uniform:

This week, the final one of summer vacation, will be consumed with more trips to the pool, more school readiness (I haven't even told you about that!  good news there!), more Kentucky trip planning, and hopefully some decent sleep.  We are all short on sleep, but there's too much fun to be had to spend it sleeping!

august 23

yes, still here.

We're enjoying the last few drops of this sweet summer.

We've:

• rented a peddle boat on Lake Wingra
• gone to the new Children's Museum (AWESOME!)
• biked around Lake Monona with friends
• started tackle football practice two nights/week
• hosted cousin + girlfriend + doggie
• spent more and more and more time at the pool
• bought school supplies and registered for school.

We're:

• sad that summer is coming to a close
• but then again, excited about the upcoming school year (looks like great teachers and friends in class), and
• still mourning, of course, our beloved Grandma Donna.

Thanks for your kind posts about our loss. Bob's uncle sent an envelope full of fantastic photos of Donna. Quite the treasure. Also, a long-ago boss/mentor from Bob's past called him over the weekend to offer his sympathies, and it was so wonderful for Bob to reconnect with him.

We have some exciting (and slightly nerve-wracking) plans for our future. The anticipation of these is making it hard to get to sleep at night, but it's all good. It's good to shake things up once in a while. More about these later.

sad

So.

Bob's aunt/surrogate mom died yesterday. Without getting into the nitty gritty, she swept in and rescued him from a bad situation when he was a teenager. She has been his family ever since. His biological mom didn't come to our wedding. Donna took on that role, and she has been Grandma Donna to our kids.

She was so vibrant and full of life. Again, without getting into the nitty gritty, she made some curious and confusing choices in recent years, but one thing never wavered -- her love for Bob and our boys.

She was diagnosed with pancreatic this past spring. We knew it would be a quick and painful road, and it was.

It still hasn't sunk in.

We are very sad.

August 10

August 10? Really?

We've been busy busy busy in all good ways. One and Two are doing swimming lessons last/this week. Looks like One will pass into level 5 (! - simply because I think the last time he took lessons was 4 years ago, but going to the pool every day will just make you a stronger swimmer, there's no two ways around that fact). Not so sure about in Two will pass, but I don't care either way. He's having a blast in lessons.

In other pool news, Two learned how to dive (both a deep dive and a racing dive). One perfected his dive into something real purty. And Three, not to be outdone by his big brothers, has discovered how fun it is to jump off the diving board. At age 4. He amazes me. He also swam two lengths of the pool. He also has a new group of friends at the pool - he calls them his "diving board buddies". They are all about 14 years old and they do amazing flips and dives. He tells them how to dive, and they very sweetly oblige him. It's really the cutest thing ever.

three loving the deep end

(font change - not sure why, too tired to fix it)

If it's not painfully obvious, we've been living at the pool. I think we're on our 10th consecutive day of attendance. Thank God for the Goodman Pool.

Football has resumed for One. He had a second camp last week, and his tackle season practice started tonight. He got fitted with his pads tonight also. What a hunk he is in his gear. He's quite excited, and his team seems sweet. (I know that's an inappropriate adjective for a football team, but it's true.)

Rugby concluded a couple of weeks ago. During the last practice, they had the parents go on the field to give it a go. I reluctantly joined the group - went simply because I knew my boys would be upset if they didn't have a parent out there too. I kicked off my flip-flops and decided to go barefoot, which I regretted when all these big men started running around me with their cleats on. Anyway, I totally got hooked and LOVED playing. I caught and threw the ball, and even tried to run a couple of times. It was a blast. If I was 20 years younger, I'd TOTALLY play rugby. Totally. Like, in the Olympics or something.

Last Saturday, we went to Two's teacher's wedding. I was very honored that we were invited (I think two or three other families from the class were also invited). It was an outdoor event at her parents' Christmas Tree farm about 1 hour away. Quite lovely and fun.

Tomorrow is Two's birthday - seven already! We have big plans for him, which are a surprise to him. I'm too tired to blog about it now, but I promise pictures will be forthcoming.

I keep saying I'm tired, but I'm struggling lately to fall asleep. Lots on my mind - mostly good, some not so much. We're preparing to say goodbye to Bob's aunt, who is dying of cancer. Actually, we have said goodbye to her - last week. I don't know if we'll talk with her again. She's in hospice out in Phoenix. This is so very, very sad, and we will all feel her loss profoundly.

Just heard today that my bro is in Palestine. Mlark, hope your travels are safe.

My aunt from New Jersey is in town on her annual summer vacation. I haven't seen her yet but hope to soon. She's one of my favorite people in the world.

Got an email yesterday from another one of my favorite people in the world, but I have some hurt feelings about this relationship that I need to mull over and address. I'm certainly thinking a lot about how to have a productive and honest conversation there.

So much to do yet this summer - don't know if we can fit it all in. Good problem to have, I know. With all the heat and mosquitos, we decided against a second mom/kid camping trip, which was originally scheduled for next week.

Will sleep come soon?