Still trying to post pictures!

Let's see how this works. I am using a new app from my phone. I only took a few pictures with my phone at A Toast to Dane. These are of Luke and Kevin, two of Dane's best friends. And Jenny too of course!

A Toast to Dane #7

I am glad that February 25th is over for another year...as well as the last Friday of February. I don't really care for either one, really. Such a traumatic time for our family, in particular Jenny, Arne and Kjell and also for many others who loved and cared for Dane. Anniversaries of deaths are not a pleasant thing as a rule, but for me, I think the suddenness and shock of Dane's death at 23 years of age is something that is still hard to process On Friday night, as we were falling asleep, Jack said to me, "When I think of Dane being gone, I can't believe how profound his loss is, how tragic it is, and how I still can't reconcile it". I feel the same way. And I continue to be amazed at how Jenny has learned to work around her grief and mourning in the most positive way possible. With that in mind, we had our yearly toast to Dane at Muldoon's, a restaurant where we gathered with Dane's friends the night of Dane's funeral. There are some really fine and fun people involved and I find it such a comfort to be with them.
I wanted to add some pictures, but am having trouble loading them. It's too late for me to problem solve, so I will try again tomorrow. Or maybe I will just post a few from my phone via a mobile post. We'll see. No pun intended.

Wayne, Abbie and Nina

Here is a cute video from our Toast to Dane at Muldoon's last night.

More cute kids

Andrew, Ruthanne and Daniel

Paul and Michael

Yesterday after work I celebrated the holidays, belatedly, with my Fun Friday friends (i.e., my coworkers who educate students who have emotional or behavioral needs). We just could not get our holiday get together scheduled in December, but actually it worked out even better having it now. I really respect and admire all of these folks. They do amazing work every day...and I just show up on Fridays and do my speech thing. The best part about our party yesterday was getting to meet Paul's (our program administrator) 6 mo old son, Michael, and getting to spend some time with Ruthanne's boys, Andrew and Daniel.(Click here to visit her blog and hear about their family...Ruthanne is adopting a third son!) They are super precious. Great way to start a three day weekend:)

Happy Valentine's Day!

I had a fun day celebrating Valentine's Day with my sweet preschool age students. They are so darn cute. And Eileen, our boss, brought lunch for us...homemade soup and brownies. I ended up staying at work til 5:30 finishing up a report. I got home in time to have some left over pizza for dinner, then left for my very first massage ever in my whole life. My Friday friends gave me a gift certificate for a massage in lieu of flowers for my mom's death. Great choice. It was so very relaxing. I might have fallen asleep during it. What a treat. As I went to the appointment, I drove near where my brother Tom and sister-in-law Ann lived during Tom's last six months of life. I remembered, with great peace, one of my very favorite Valentine's Days ever. It was 2007 and it was snowy and Jack, Ann, Tom and I shared an almost normal fancy dinner at Tom and Ann's house. Such awesome memories of sitting at that round, white kitchen table, sharing a dinner that ten years earlier would have been business as usual...but in 2007, with Tom dealing with a GBM,  it was sweeter and more meaningful than almost any other meal I have ever had in my life. I will never forget it as long as I live.
xox

Two cute girls...guess who?

We had a lovely weekend, in part because we got to spend a few hours with Abbie and Nina on Saturday. I am still trying to learn how to use my new camera...even though it is not so new. I have been trying out a lens that Christy gave me. It is a "nifty fifty", perfect for portraits. These are two pictures that I took of the girls. Love those girls.

On Friday night, Jack and I had dinner plans with Teri and Chuck. We decided to go to a local Bohemian restaurant because that is Teri's heritage and it is a great value. Spur of the moment, Grace (Chuck and Teri's youngest daughter, my goddaughter) and Sally ended up coming with us and it was so fun. As Teri said in an email on Saturday, our kids "have turned out to be more fun to be with than anyone else we know". We were home by 9 pm and it was the perfect way to end the week and start the weekend. And I was up til after 8 on a Friday! Yaaay me!

It was a good Sunday. I walked with Jean, met Sue and Jenny for lunch, did a Target and finished up paperwork for two IEP meetings tomorrow. Jack and I went to mass last night, which always opens up Sunday.

Happy birthday, Wayne!

Tonight Jack, Wayne, Sally and I celebrated Wayne's 27th birthday together as a family. Wayne chose The Reel Club for our dinner out. We had a marvelous time, enjoying each other and talking about important things. So blessed. Time has gone so fast. How could it be that Wayne is 27 when I still feel like I am 38???

Productive weekend so far!

I am finally getting something accomplished this weekend.  I started it off with one of my famous 12 hour sleeps...7:30 last night til 7:30 this morning...there is nothing like it! When I woke up, I was ready to go. My disorganization has been driving me crazy. I have piles of papers, therapy materials, sympathy cards, Christmas cards, etc everywhere. Every night I come home from work and tell myself that I am going to organize things and every night I don't! So I spent lots of time today sifting through papers and cards, as well as cleaning and dusting and it felt awesome! A side benefit was rereading the many thoughtful cards and notes that we received after Mike and Marmar died. I cannot throw them away, so I "organized" them into a big plastic ziplock bag.
I received some homemade cards from some of my students, including one former student. Here are two of my favorites (with names omitted for privacy)

super creative..bandaid on the heart :)

this second grader wanted the facts :)

Don't you love it???
Jack and I had a late lunch/early dinner at Gibson's to reward ourselves for all of our hard work, then went to 5 o'clock mass. I should get back at it and write some more thank you notes, but I think I may go read a book instead. Gotta pace myself.