Paradise!

It has been such a relaxing time here in Scottsdale. We arrived on Saturday afternoon and the weather has been perfect the entire time. It's been around 90 degrees and sunny.

We are staying in a great house. One of the greatest joys of this trip has been to wake up under the same roof as our 4 kids. Wayne, Julie, Matt and Sally are fun and easy to vacation with. Everyone has had the chance to do what they want and at whatever pace. No big schedules or timelines. For example, Wayne, Julie and Matt climbed Camelback mountain on Monday morning while Sally and I took a walk. Jack ended up going to the Walgreens take care clinic because of the sinus infection that he's been dealing with since January. He got some heavy duty antibiotics, thank goodness. On Monday afternoon, Wayne, Julie, Sally and I went to a White Sox spring training game. Super hot but very fun. We didn't last long!

There is a pool at this house and so every day we have all been in and out of it, relaxing and soaking up the rays and vitamin D. As I write this, I am sitting on the patio, listening to the birds and enjoying fresh air. Heavenly! 

One more day til SB15!

In case you are wondering, SB15 = Spring Break 2015!
After this incredibly busy month and especially after Monday's four inches of snow and a cold and blustery last week of March, I am ready!!!
One more day of work and some laundry and ironing and packing and Jack and I will be on our way to Arizona with Wayne, Julie, Sally and Matt. The kids are treating us to this vacation as a way to celebrate our big birthdays this year. How sweet, thoughtful, generous and loving is that?
In truth, it would not matter if we just stayed home. The idea of spending several days with all of us together under one roof? Amazing! What more could a mother want???

just enough to be totally annoying

 taken this morning... a hint of spring in the air

Lots of work

It has been an incredibly busy week at work. Good thing I love my job so much!
Let's start with the fact that my wing of the school was in charge of lunch on Tuesday, St. Patrick's Day. That is a whole lot of distraction and work, but on the plus side, lots of camaraderie. In addition, I am not used to eating a big lunch so when I came home from work on Tuesday, I just kinda had to go to bed. Yep, I am getting that old.
I feel as if I need to mention that Marmar would have been celebrating her 90th birthday on this St. Patrick's Day. Marmar LOVED her birthday. Lots of green and shamrocks. All good. It didn't matter that she wasn't Irish, although as Jack often points out to me, who knows what our family is?
The busiest day of the week was today. (and well, yesterday, too because I stayed up til almost midnight working on a 3 yr re-eval for a Friday kiddo). During the school day, I had two annual reviews, one at a school ten miles away. Annual reviews=reports and lots of paperwork. Tonight we had a parent education program for the Phono program. My boss Eileen and I were all cool with it, being the third year in a row we have hosted this. The meeting was  scheduled from 7 to 8:15pm. At around 4pm, Eileen said she was going to get a bite of dinner with her daughter (who "volunteered" to be one of our childcare providers) around 5:45 and I said I was going to run home and freshen up. Neither happened. It was like when you have a party or entertain. You think about all of the things you will get done and how ahead of the game you are and then all of a sudden, guests are walking through the door and you are still cleaning the bathroom.
But it was a great night. The families that I work with are awesome and the evening went well.
It was a nice distraction from the fact that it is the 8th anniversary of Tommy's death from that goshdarn GBM (brain tumor).
I loved and continue to love my brother so much. Tom was the best. I had the most amazing dream this past Saturday, in which I had a great conversation with Tom. Near the end of it, I told him I would get a wheelchair for him because there was a steep ramp for him to go down. Tom looked at me, smiled and told me he wouldn't need it because he had been healed and was whole. It was beyond comforting to me. That is the promise I am holding on to!

Welcome, Charley!

We have a new family member!! Charley Grace was born on Friday morning, 7 lbs 2 oz, 19 inches long. I am so thrilled! Charley is the daughter of my nephew Kjell and his wife Lisa. I received the news of Charley's birth as I walked into school on Friday morning. Lisa had a scheduled c-section (as mentioned in the last post) for Friday at 7:30 am. I was waiting and waiting for the news and I felt my phone (which was in my coat pocket) ding with an incoming text at 8:24am. I could hardly wait to get inside the building to check out the text. And there she was...our newest family member with her dad!

hi, Charley!

Lisa, Charley and Beth

Of course, I had to show off Charley's picture all day. Jack and I got to meet her Friday night. We felt so fortunate to have that opportunity. So so so precious! New life is such a miracle! Lisa and Kjell were both so generous to share Charley's day of birth with us. We feel very blessed.

"isn't this just great?"

I am in heaven!

Uncle Arn

Charley came home tonight and got to meet her cousins, Abbie and Nina.

cousins!

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow!

Here's to March

It has been a great start to March. After yesterday's awesome family time in celebration of Dane, I had the luxury of a day off work (Pulaski Day in Illinois...some school districts have it off, including the one where my classroom is housed). The weather was beautiful, sunny and warm...in the 30s!!!

One of the highlights of the day was lunch with Cath and Christy. We went to the cafe at Standard Market and had fun catching up on life. Cath and I ended up trying to help Christy get further along with her with texting and mobile communication in general. Christy is getting there!

tech time!

Tonight Jack and I are having fun watching The Bachelor: Women Tell All. It has been such an entertaining season...don't judge us too much. Fun way to spend Monday nights!

And in less than six days, we will have a new family member. My nephew Kjell and his wife Lisa are having a planned Csection on Friday!!!! There couldn't be a better way to start off the month. 

good thing Lisa didn't mind the hands on!

Celebrating Dane

We did not have our traditional Toast to Dane this year. I think it was too hard for many reasons, one of them being the loss of Susie. The plan is to do a Danefest, probably a Sox game this summer, which we did the year Dane died (2005) and then again in 2009.

This year Jenny invited everyone over for lunch today. She has been cleaning out her basement (after all her hard work on Susie's house!!) and decided she wanted to share Dane's things with the family. It was a very cathartic day. 

some of Dane's things

Everyone was able to be there, except for Matt (Otto was neutered yesterday..ouch...and Matt stayed home to take care of him). Jenny had Dane's things all organized and on display. You would not believe the things that Dane saved! He was sentimental and a packrat and such a character and that was all reflected in his things. Dane even saved the letter I wrote him when Jenny and I dropped him off at Iowa for freshman year of college. Such a sweetheart. 

We also watched some old home videos including one of our family trips to Dallas to visit Tom. It was so amazing to see Dane,  my dad, my mom, Sue and Tom and to hear their voices and their laughs. Abbie and Nina loved seeing their dad as a youngster. Thank God for home videos!

And thank God for family. 

Jen and Wayne

no words

Today is the 10th anniversary of Dane's homegoing (as Susie liked to call it).
It still hurts.
I can't even open the door to the pain of that day.
Dane was such a big part of our lives. A lynch pin in the family dynamics. Dane was Dane and proud of it.
Where do you put that grief?
You just give it to God.
He will take care of it, just as He takes care of our every need.
I was going to post something on Facebook, but no words could adequately express my feelings without seeming like a cliche.
Jenny and I were talking on the phone this morning, right after I got to work. I was in my classroom,
sitting on the window ledge because that is the only place where I get reception on my phone. We were talking about Dane and I noticed that a little bird landed on a bush/tree right outside my window. Then another one arrived. Then one more. I said to Jen, "Oh there are one...no, two...oh there are three little birds sitting in the tree outside my window." At that point, I was just thinking "signs of spring".
An hour later I realized how profound that was.
Three little birds. Perched on my doorstep.
This is my message to you.
Don't worry about a thing.
Every little thing's gonna be alright.
It always is. No matter what.