A Memorial Service for a Sweet Little Boy

We had a most wonderful celebration of Natnael's short life on Saturday, March 17. Courtney and Paul's pastor had the best message for all of us. He spoke so personally to Courtney, Paul, and Tizita. I know we all walked away feeling so good about the fact that Natnael is in heaven and we will all see him again.

Courtney and Paul had set up a display with some of the things that had been given to Natnael in anticipation of his homecoming. His pictures were displayed, too. It gave them a chance to share him with their many friends.

There were flowers in memory of a grandson, great grandson, and nephew that we never had the chance to meet.

After the service we all met at Beckett's to continue the celebration. Here are Tizita and three of her friends. There were lots of children running around and having fun at the party.

Alissa and Nathan enjoyed the 70 degree temps and ate their dinner outside on the patio.

I had purchased balloons and all the children got to release a balloon up into the heavens for Natnael.

Here's the crazy balloon lady trying to untangle them for the kids to launch.

Ready, set, let them go.

The balloons were visible for a long time up in the beautiful blue sky.

It was such a great day and the best part was when Courtney and Paul announced that they have a new referral for a little girl named Soliana which means sunshine. She is 8 months old and will definitely be the sunshine after our storm. Courtney, Paul, and Tiz travel in a month to go meet her for the first time.

Here is the obituary in the memorial bulletin:

Natnael Mebrat

March 20, 2010 - January 14, 2012

Natnael was, by all accounts a sweet boy. He was greatly loved by his birth family, as well at the family, friends, and nannies who helped care for him in Ethiopia. He even had a best friend in the care center during his time there. We waited three years to find out who our next child would be and were so excited to learn about Natnael, whom we loved as our son and brother as soon as we laid eyes on him. We and his new grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends, greatly anticipated meeing him. Sadly, we were only able to spend a few hours with Natnael, but we will never forget him. Rest in peace, sweet boy.

Elias Fish Fry

Alissa and Nathan arrived yesterday and we started our weekend with a long overdue fish fry at Elias. I don't know why we don't go there more often for their awesome fish fry. Wisconsin is known for its many tasty fish fries and we have enjoyed many of them, but none quite compares to the one that is offered at Elias.

After the fry we headed over to Ann's Uptown for a few beers. Kev joined us and of course, we shared many laughs. We were so hoping that Whitewater and Illinois Wesleyan would meet in the final two for the division three Basketball tournament, but IWU lost so that was not to be. We were all wondering who Kev would be backing if they did meet. He is a Whitewater alum, but he owns stock in the IWU bookstore after all he purchased there over the years. We pictured him sporting half purple and half green to show support for both teams.

Today we are going up to Oshkosh for the memorial service and a night fo celebration.

Remembering our Grandson, Natnael

Tomorrow we celebrate the short life of our grandson, Natnael. We know he is running free in heaven reunited with so many that went before him. Tomorrow we will cry some, laugh some, and enjoy the company of friends and family as we come together to remember this sweet, sweet boy.

The photo shows Natnael's gravesite in Ethiopia. The wonderful people on the picture are friends of Courtney and Paul's. They live in Ethiopia and are happy to visit Natnael's resting place. Such comfort in such a small act of kindness. Someday, I really pray that I will be able to visit this special place, too, but even if I never get to Ethiopia, I will see Natnael again in heaven.

See you soon, Little Natnael.

Stone Soup

First of all, I want you to notice my cute apron which was a birthday gift from Carlee, the little girl the left. I felt I needed to wear it today while we were making our stone soup. We made stone soup to conclude our unit on the Five Senses.

After reading the story, we acted it out. The children were all the mean towns people who wouldn't share their food with me. Finally, I tricked them into sharing. Everyone brought some veggies and took turns adding them to the soup pot.

And yes, there really is a stone in the soup. That is what makes it so tasty. The kids were all worried about who would get that stone in their bowl of soup.

Here is my afternoon class making their soup.

It was really yummy. We used lots of spices, the big stone, carrots, corn, onions, celery, broccoli, garlic, and spinach with a few chicken boullion cubes thrown in. Most of the children ate the whole bowl, while a few of them refused to even touch it. It was either feast or famine with them.

One of my comments on FB when I posted the pictures was, "Boy, they teach them to make "whop-a-toolie" early these days. I laughed at that one, because I enjoyed some great whop-a-toolie in college, but that is a whole 'nother post!

Is this really mid March?

First of all, I apologize for the quality of this photo, but I wanted to document that I was actually wearing capris on March 14. This has to be some kind of a record for me. I didn't even care about my pasty white legs today. When my weatherman, Charlie Shortino said it was going to be in the high seventies today, I just had to wear the capris. The only problem is that once I put them on, I find it hard to get back into long pants. Same thing happens to me with flip flops.
This weather is so beautiful, but we know it cannot be the start of spring or can it? We can only hope.

Who knew?

Today's photo is of the great new app I found on my smartphone. It is called Endomond and it tracks our route when we walk, then tell us how many miles we walked, calories we burned, and miles per hour. No need for my antiquated pedometer with this app.
We used it for the first time last night and it was awesome to watch those tenths of miles add up. We walked 3 miles last night in 45 minutes.

It also shows you the route that your travelled. Looking forward to using it on all or our walks.

We can also use it with our bikes so now I don't need the speedometer anymore either!

Who knew that a phone could do so many things?

Today my photo is a pleasant step into the past. Here are my sweet little girls having lunch at their little table in our townhouse on Bayberry Dr. In ways, it seems like only yesterday and when I tell people that in the blink of an eye these days will be gone and your babies will be all grown up, I really mean it.
Some days may seem never ending when you have little ones, but believe me, they years just zoom by.
Alissa was just shy of two here and Courtney was almost four. Such a fun age. Just look at that head of hair on Alissa. She had such a headful of hair.
This coming weekend I will be with both my daughters up in Oshkosh. I still love spending time with them. We always have fun.