A few unrelated thoughts

Last night John and I rode our bikes to Walmart. I needed a few baking items for the bars I will be making to take along to Florida with us next week. It was a good ride. I like the fact that my legs are getting so much stronger and the hills are less challenging! Anyway, back to Walmart. We got brave and used the self serve checkout. It went very smoothly and we both felt very proud of ourselves! After all we are college graduates!

My next item to share is my book. I am now published, although my book isn't for sale anywhere and never will be. Courtney and Paul had the first six months of my blog published ( I am not the proper terminology is "published" but I like to use that word because I always wanted to publish a book). It is a gift that I had asked for because I look forward to sharing it with Tizita when she gets older. It is a record of the months from the time we learned her name, sex, and age until we met her getting off the airplane. I just love reading it and reliving that time of my life.

This is the cover of my book.

Here is one of my favorite pictures. It is hard to believe that I took this beautiful photo.

It is amazing to me to read my words printed in such a beautiful book with all of my photos in it, too. Just a precious gift!

And here is that beautiful face as we saw it that first night when she got off the plane and came home!
I just want to thank Courtney and Paul for this wonderful gift. I will read it often and look forward to sharing it with my sweet Tizita!

A walk with Courtney and Tizita

Courtney, Tizita, and I took a nice long walk on Monday morning before the Van Aukens headed back up to Oshkosh. It was very humid out and Courtney and I were both sweating by the time we got home. We headed up some side streets to Fanny Lewis Park, then on to Lincoln Park, and finally to Jimmy John's to buy tuna subs for lunch. Courtney claims she has never been on some of these side streets, but I am sure she was on them when she was growing up, but who knows. When we got to Fanny Lewis park we were welcomed by many, many baby ducks. They enjoyed our cheerios again.

This is the fountain at the park which Tizita enjoy playing in.


I remember last summer when I was just waiting to be able to take my yet unamed and unknown grandchild to feed the ducks and now we get to do that together! What a blessing!

Our first Overnight withTizu minus her parents

Courtney and Paul asked us months ago if we would watch Tizita overnight while they went to celebrate their fifth anniversary. Uhm, well let us think about this for ... Of course, we were elated to say yes to this request! Like I said it was months ago and it seemed so far off in the future. We looked forward to May 30, we talked about how much fun we were going to have withTizita all to ourselves. Finally the long awaited weekend arrived and boy, did we have fun! No it is all over and only a great memory instead of the a long anticipated event.
Our weekend started with a nap since Courtney and Paul left right after lunch. I rocked my little Tizita to sleep and just enjoyed these peaceful moments. She slept well and woke up ready for some fun activities.

We started with some bubble blowing with homemade bubbles.

Then it was a trip to the park where Tizita enjoyed hanging on the rings for quite awhile.


After playing on the playground we fed the ducks. This particular papa duck who had a limp ate right from our hands. We were feeding them some oyster crackers which both they and Tizu seemed to enjoy.

We brought my sensory table home from school and Grandpa got us some play sand which we added to the St. George sand I keep on hand at school. We all had lots of fun playing!

Then it was off to Culver's for dinner. Here you see Tizu sporting some shades she found at Mallory's house on her "build a bear" poodle. Our dinner at Culver's was much more relaxed than the last time we took her, in part, because Gigi was along and helped us keep her occupied and in part, because we had the big corner booth so she had lots of room to roam.
That brought the end to our first day. Our night went well. Tizu went to sleep nicely for us and woke up by yelling "Paul, water" a few times. She also said, "Peanut butter, please," before she even opened her little eyes! Too funny!

On Sunday we went to church where she was very good. Spent alot of time with Grandpa. We came home and put Mallory on swing duty. Our first experience with our new pink swing on Saturday did not go so well, so we decided that Mallory needed to charm her into the swing which she indeed did. Now Tizu cannot get enough of her pink swing, Thanks Mal.

A happy grandpa now that his Tizu is enjoying her $25.00 swing!

We enjoyed a nice picnic lunch outside.

Then it was another trip to the park with lots of running, duck feeding, stick picking up, and other fun stuff.

More bubble fun
And sprinkler fun!

All in all, a very successful, fun overnighter with our little Tizu!
Mama and Papa returned after a very nice celebration and their only complaint was that we did not give her a nap on Sunday. Well, we were all having so much fun that we didn't feel like putting her down! A grandparent's right, I would say!

Grandpa even had time for a cigar!

Officially waiting for another Grandchild!

Just got the official word from Courtney-the paper chase is over and everything has been sent in for our second grandchild from Ethiopia! The wait is significantly longer this time around, but I think it will be easier because we already have Tizita here with us to help us pass the time. Estimated time of referral is sometime at the end of 2010 with travel in March of 2011.

I read on my daily calendar yesterday, "Your life is God's novel, let him write it." This is a time for us to step back and just let God write this chapter in his own way and his own time.

Another school year comes to a close

I have mixed feelings today as I ended another school year with a wonderful Preschool program last night. I think I have ended some 25+ Preschool years with programs over the years and as usual I don't know exactly how to be feeling about another end. Of course I am happy for the break to enjoy some down time and rejuvenate, but there is also the sadness of sending another group of kids out into the world. There are a number of the kids that I will see daily because they stay in our school, but there are also an equal number that I will not see again because they move on to different schools and even different towns. My prayer for all of them is that wherever they end up, they will have successful school years and that somehow that will be due in a small way to their first school experience in my classroom. I also pray that I will see all of them in heaven someday.

After the program I always feel like somewhat of a star. I am asked to be in many pictures, I am presented with gifts and flowers, and I get more hugs than any one person deserves in such a short time. These are bittersweet moments. I know most of these children will not remember much about their three year old preschool years unless it is through the memories their parents give them through stories and the picture books that I give each one of them. Most will not remember who I was and for the most part I will probably forget most of their names and faces over the years as new students take up my limited brain space, but for last night I was their star teacher and they were my heroes! I do know the parents will remember me and appreciate the things I did for their child during this school year. I know that from the kind notes they gave me and all the wonderful comments from last night.
As the old saying goes (I am paraphrasing, can't remember it exactly) One hundred years from now it will not matter what kind of house I lived in, what kind of car I drove, or how much money I had, but what will matter is that I was important in the life of a child. That is really what it is all about for me and that is why I love my job so much!

My plans for this summer, you ask? Well, lots of Tizita time, a fun trip to St. George Island, Florida, and many bike trips with John. Plus lots of scrapbooking, organizing, blogging, gardening, walking, ...
Okay, I am now feeling happy again, bring on the summer break!

First bike adventure of the season

This past weekend John and I headed up to Two Rivers/Manitowoc to ride on one of our favorite trails. We left Watertown in the rain, hoping it would eventually stop which it did. We took a nice scenic route up to Two Rivers. When we arrived we had a nice lunch at Cousins and headed out on the Rawley Point trail which meanders through Point Beach State Park. It is such a beautiful trail going through the state forest. It is very curvy so no one can go too fast which is nice because you can take in all the beautiful scenery. It is a five mile ride to the concession area at the end of the trail. We walked around on the Lake shore. It was breezy and cool but no rain, yet! We rode a few more miles to the lighthouse and that is when I felt the first drop.


After that first drop of rain it never let up until hours later, but it was just a drizzle so it wasn't so bad. Luckily I had thrown Alissa's old swimming windbreaker in my backpack so I put that on and stayed nice and dry.
We spent the night in the Lighthouse Inn which is right on the Lake and the bike trail. It is a very pretty place. We enjoyed drinks and a fine dinner in the restaurant there.
The next day we rode the Mariner trail which goes five miles to Manitowoc. It is a nice paved trail along the lake. We hiked out to another lighthouse in Manitowoc and enjoyed a nice lunch at an ice cream candy store in downtown Manitowoc.

The five miles back to Two Rivers was a hard pedal since there was a strong wind and the trail was slightly uphill, but we made it. We then did a little more biking into and around Two Rivers before heading out for home. We took another scenic route home.
It was a very good start to our biking season and we hope to have many more fun rides this summer.

Happy 83 Birthday, Dad!

My dad would have been 83 years old today, but he is celebrating this birthday up in heaven
with all those family and friends who have gone before us just as he has celebrated the last 21! When he died back in 1992 I didn't realize just how young he was. Now that I am fastly approaching the big 60 (Okay, not that fast, but I am 58) I now see that he really was not all that old! Age is so relevant!
Anyway God had the perfect plan for him and that is so apparent to us so we never questioned God's wisdom in calling him home when he did. Have we wished him back? Sure, countless times but would we really want him to leave the splendor of his heavenly home to return to our sinfilled world, NO WAY! We will see him soon enough as it is.
As a tribute to my dad I wanted to recall a few things that made him special to me and to all the others who knew him:

1. My dad was very social-loved people, loved parties. I think he was happiest when the house was filled with friends and family just having fun together.

2. My dad was a hard worker. He worked at the same factory all his life and for all those years I just figured you could never call him there or go inside the factory. When he was at work, he was unreachable. That is how it was in those days.

3. My dad "owned" all rights to the one car we had and the one TV we had-no remote either. We went where he took us and we watched what he wanted to watch. It was a simpler time where the Fathers were in control of the household.

4. My dad was a faithful man. He went to church, served on church boards, and in his own quiet say taught us to trust in God, too. The night before he died I saw him with his hands folded obviously carrying on a deep conversation with his heavenly Father. We didn't know that would be his last night on earth, but I think he knew it! (I take so much comfort in that, too)

5. My dad loved sports of all kinds. He played softball for years and I was one of the kids that grew up under the bleachers at numerous baseball fields. I was also one of those kids who ended up at a local tavern for a celebration after the games. Celebrations were big no matter what the outcome of the game.

6. My dad set the standards high for my brother and I. He expected good grades, good behavior, and good attitude from us. I learned from him how to expect that in my daughters, too.

7. My dad loved watching Hogan's Heroes every night when he got home from work. He also enjoyed a drink at that time. Now that I look back, I am thinking that was his way to unwind from the stress of the factory.

8. My dad loved his country and all celebrations that had to do with it. I don't know his political views since he did not talk Politics, but I know he voted and knew what a privilege that was.

9. My dad loved his granddaughters. He enjoyed spending time with them. I know he played a mean game of Monopoly on numerous occasions with them. He never got to meet Mallory or Tizita, but he knows about them.

10. My dad didn't have much money but he would have given you the shirt off his back if you needed it, that is the kind of man he was.

So, today, I will go visit him at the cemetery even though he is long gone from there, but I will still stop for a minute and say "Hello" and I will have a toast to him later tonight.

Even though the girls were young when he died and like I said he never met Mallory or Tizita, we have kept his memory alive. He is with us at every holiday and family celebration in the happy thoughts and memories that we share with one another. The grandkids all know him just as if he were still here with us and for that I am thankful because he was a man worth getting to know.

So Happy Birthday Dad and see you soon!