Matt and Jen's wedding

A week ago today we witnessed the marriage of Matt and Jen. Matt and Wayne met the first day of kindergarten at The Lane School (who will ever forget the backpack with the working clock on the front of it? I know I won't!). His mother, Christy, and I have been BFFs ever since.
Matt and Jen asked Jack to do a reading at their wedding since Jack was Matt's Confirmation sponsor. That meant a lot to Jack. They asked me to do the blessing/grace before the meal at the reception. And that meant a lot to me. And with Wayne as one of the groomsman, it made the day even more special to us. The three pictures below are stills that I captured from the video Jack took with the flipcam. Interesting technology! Not the best resolution, but super easy

Matt, Christy and Patrick, coming down the aisle

Mr. and Mrs.!

Caitlin and Wayne

In between the ceremony and reception, Chuck and Teri invited a few folks to join them for cocktails. Julie, Wayne's girlfriend, was hanging with us and so she got to hang out with the older folks for an hour or so.

you wouldn't believe how long it took to get this picture set up :)

The reception was awesome. I loved catching up with so many youngsters, high school friends of Matt's, that I had not seen in years. It was great to see Christy and Steve's family too. That is one of the best parts of a wedding, having people who are important in your life all gathered together for a few hours to celebrate a happy event.

Kevin, Christy, me and Matt

Ahhhh Friday.

Feeling the Friday-ness right now. It's about 8 pm, I am sitting in the living room with Jack, having a little glass of wine, posting some pictures from Matt and Jen's wedding on Facebook, and just relaxing.
Work was good this week. I am so thankful for my job. There is so much good about it, not much bad at all. I am still learning something new, almost everyday, and that is pretty cool. I also work with many wonderful people. I am reminded of that daily. I went to a wake today after school. The nurse consultant who has done vision and hearing screening for my students for the last twenty years and who has certified me in CPR courses and who just retired...her husband died of a heart attack. But Sue (yet another amazing Sue in my life) is a supremely positive and faith filled person with a loving family and I know she will be fine. What's her choice?
At the wake, I had some great conversations with several coworkers, both current and former. One former coworker, who is now a high level administrator in a great school district, said to me, "I love your posts and pictures on Facebook. It looks like you are always having fun and enjoying life"
Life is what you make of it.
As the tagline on this blog says, life does not have to be perfect to be wonderful.

Behind on my posting

I am sorry that I am so behind on my blogging. We had a super fun and busy weekend, with Matt and Jen's rehearsal dinner (Jack was a reader) and then the wedding on Saturday, and lunch with Wayne, Julie, Sally and Matt on Sunday. The wedding was wonderful, everything was perfect and I am so happy for the happy couple and the families.
Work is busy as always. So tired tonight and it is past my bedtime so I will catch you all up later.
Thanks for being faithful readers and checking in with me.
xox

here's a pic from the rehearsal to tide you over

A good man

My dear friend, Cathy, lost her dad this past Sunday, October 13th. It was Jim's 78th birthday. He was a great man, loved and admired by all. Jack and I have gotten to know him and the rest of Cathy's family over the years, including spending time together in Disney World back in the day. One of our favorite memories of Cath's dad was when Jack bought him a name tag at Disney that said "Jimbo"  and for the hometown, it said "Parts Unknown". It has been a running joke for many years. Mark was incredulous that Jack was calling his (Mark's) father-in-law by his first name/nickname when Mark still called him Mr. M! Jimbo was a great sport with a great sense of humor. Jimbo certainly was deserving of a more respectful nickname than Jimbo, but he laughed along with everyone else.
Cathy's parents retired to Georgia several years ago, but did not really slow down at all. Jim was the fire chief for the island where they lived and also did some deputy police work.
And he enjoyed his family. Immensely.
Grief is such a personal emotion. No one can grieve for you and it is difficult work. You just gotta go through it and so we are praying for Cath, Mark and the entire family.

Mr. M with one of his grandsons, 2009

Jack loved Jimbo's stories

Brunch

We hosted a brunch for my side of the family on Sunday. I had not seen or talked to many of my family members for several weeks. Oh, sure, a few texts and facebook messages, but no in depth conversations or real time spent together, so we decided to have a brunch just like the old days. It was awesome, though I never knew that most of my family does not like the egg casserole that I make! (side note: Jack's side of the family loves it:)) Thank goodness I have recently added pancakes (recipe courtesy of my gourmet friend Lynn) to the menu.
It is not about the food anyway. Not really.
It's about the relationships.
We have been trying to figure out how to improve our communication with each other. Before Marmar died, it wasn't an issue. She called us everyday, "just checking in" and then shared with the others what was going on in our lives. I tried to problem solve around this issue, but the responses were not helpful. The suggestions included laminated calling trees and book clubs. They were not taking me seriously! But we are increasing our Facebook message activity and it has been very entertaining.
And the bottom line is that our relationships are very intact. And we love each other no matter what.

Friday

Pretty clever title, isn't it?
It's not easy coming up with titles for these blog posts.
I love Fridays. I wake up on Friday mornings with a bit of an extra bounce in my step. Well, except this morning, I hit the snooze button and when the alarm rang again nine minutes later, I was in the middle of a complex dream, but I did get myself out of bed and had my therapy walk with Jean.  On Fridays, Jean and I stop at Starbucks and each get a tall coffee. Today we got one free! It was an excellent way to start the day.
At work, Fridays are always a challenge. Wow. Mondays through Thursdays are in my comfort zone, but Fridays (a whole different aspect of my job as faithful readers know) are full of relying on instincts and reading the room and sometimes...? trying not to make things worse. When I drive home after my Fun Friday, I am usually self-evaluating and second guessing something that has happened over the course of the day. I don't like to mess up, but sometimes I do.
Some Friday nights Jack and I stay up later than 8:30, like tonight. We went over to Christy and Steve's to hang out by their backyard fireplace and visit with them. Also present tonight were Matt and Jen who, btw, are getting married next Saturday. It was really special to spend time with them, so close to their big day. Such an exciting time. I can hardly wait.
For now, it is waaaaay past my bedtime.
Good night.
Tomorrow I will post about Saturday :)

Thursday

Oh, Thursday. You are almost Friday. 

And it's almost a three day weekend. I am ready. 

Today was busy. An IEP meeting for a student before school, productive day with my students, then I taught the second portion of the iPad class from 4-7:30. 

I am really grateful for a normal day. Right now a dear friend's dad is dealing with a brain tumor. We are praying hard for him. 

And I am reminded of what it was like living through my brother's battle with a brain tumor. 

A regular routine day is all good. 

Cuteness

Jean and I saw the cutest thing on our walk this morning. A yellow lab trotted down a driveway, stopped and picked up the huge Sunday paper very gently with his mouth. He (or she) saw us, wagged his/her tail then turned and headed back towards the open garage door. I was reaching into my pocket to get my phone to take a picture of this little slice of Americana when I stopped myself. I realized it was the home of Coach Q of the Blackhawks. Didn't want to be paparazzi, but my goodness, it was the sweetest sight.

Conscious Discipline

I am taking a continuing education class called "Conscious Discipline". It is fantastic. I am getting so much out of it. One of its foundational principles is that discipline is ultimately  about the state of the discipliner. Also that how we react to things depends on where in the brain we are reacting from...frontal lobe (rational, reasoning) vs limbic system (emotional) vs brain stem (impulse, survival). How I react to what is happening around me is less about the situation and more about what state I am in/what part of the brain is reacting. For much of my life I was all about the emotional reaction (WHAT??? me? I do not overreact!! I do NOT!) and over the course of time, I have become much better at taking the emotion out of situations (usually, not always). That is so much more productive, let me just say. I have learned so much by watching how Jack reacts to things. My father was the same way.
Anyway, today's class was about encouragement. Pretty powerful and interesting and all about encouraging vs judging. This quote was on the board as the class started and it totally spoke to me:
"Love is the ability and willingness to allow those that you care for to be what they choose for themselves without any insistence that they satisfy you".
Wow.
And we watched this very powerful video. All about being encouraging and the function of behaviors. Check it out if you have about 10 minutes to watch.
http://youtu.be/RXJGcqcJckA

County Fair!

We did the County Fair as a day trip on Sunday, September 22nd. Wayne and Julie were not able to attend this year as they were in Cleveland for Julie's high school reunion. Sally and Matt were toying with the idea of coming, but it was the day after Caitlin and Todd's wedding and there were still some festivities on Sunday morning. Jack and I would not have minded going by ourselves (Jack would not even have minded going by himself, as he has twice before), but we were tickled when Arne and Beth said that they and Abbie and Nina would be interested in experiencing the Fair this year. They understood that it was going to be a FULL day, from early morning to late evening and they were still game. Such troopers!
Jack rented a Yukon XL for the trip, complete with a DVD player and lots of room to spread out. We picked up the kids around 8:15 (as usual, we were 15 minutes late!) and got on the road. It was so fun to ride together. Abbie and Nina's enthusiasm and excitement were contagious. Even the rest stops were interesting to them. We arrived in Hillsdale around 1pm ET and stopped at the College for our traditional pit stop. Jack introduced the girls to the statue of Winston Churchill and they were appropriately fascinated. "Jack, it looks like this guy really liked books. How many books does he have? Let's count them!" "Jack, what is this chain on his shirt?"

Jack's best audience

After some time with Winston and Thomas Jefferson, we headed over to the Fairgrounds. Driving down Hallett, I had a flashback to the days when we had Alison, Caylen and Wayne in the last row of Rick and Pat's minivan. Same thrill to see the Fair, just a different generation :)
We started with a corn dog and fries, then did some games and rides. No photo button booth again this year, so we took some pictures and will make our own through Mpix.

Beth, Arne and Jack

so much fun!
 

fishing game

We saw the Barnyard Babies and quacked with the ducks (Abbie is an awesome quacker!) and then headed out to Marshall and Win Schuler's. Once again, Schuler's did not disappoint. I just have to remind myself next year to forget about an entrée. Just meatballs, salad and dessert. That is plenty.

There was not a cross word spoken all day. Arne and Beth are doing an outstanding job of raising two darling, respectful and confident daughters. They never whined or complained or fought. Abbie and Nina just rolled with the punches all day. Jack and I feel so blessed to be able to spend time with this darling family.
We were on course to get home around 9 pm (not too bad!) and we were less than an hour from home when we ran into a construction traffic jam on 80/94 near the state line. No one got frustrated or upset. We rode along, watching Aladdin and singing "I Can Show You the World". Beth and Abbie rocked it. We pulled into Arne and Beth's drive around 10:30 and as tired as I was, I was sad to see such a fun day end.