Happy Memorial Day!

Remembering the thousands who gave their lives for freedom and justice. Thank you Grandpa for your service! I hope you are doing well rehabbing.

Love the warm, sunny, blue sky days we have been having.
I keep trying to convince Bailey to let me brush her - her undercoat is so thick and she will be so much happier in this warm weather if she would just let me spend a solid hour brushing her. Yea, right - that's not happening.

Ordered a couch, chair & ottomon yesterday to replace the couch I donated to Matt. It'll probably be ready for delivery when I am back home in Des Moines at the end of June. :)

Wright Plus is over (only 1 more meeting to wrap things up). It went very well, as mom mentioned previously.

I hope everyone enjoys the long weekend. See you in a month!

8 days...

left of school. This year more than any other, I'm ready. The last few weeks I've been dealing with data getting necessary paperwork done. The only problem with that is that I'm doing something new--paperwork that's never been done by the 7-12 TAG person before. So with this years juniors, I'm entering data from when they were in 3rd grade!! Once I get caught up (hopefully this summer), it'll be easy to just do updates, but it's a lot of work until I get to that point.

We have few plans for the summer. When people ask me, I say that I'm planning on going to the park :) Jack might have to get tubes--he's on round 3 of antibiotics in the last month--and we go to see an ENT on June 21. I wish they could get us in sooner, but the ENT that was in Waverly full time has now left, so we have to see a dr. that travels between W'loo and Waverly, so it's harder to get in...oh well.

We're shooting to get to St. Louis early this summer--we'll be in touch, Nehres, on dates soon. Dan is probably going to play in the CF Community Band, teach some lessons and is detasseling again this year. One thing I'm really excited about our summer is that we've joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture)--Faux Farms--we pay for a share and then every week we go to the farmers market and pick up in-season produce. The first round of pickups is scheduled for 2 weeks from now (approx) and continue until October. The goal is to eat healthier...and get Lily interested in healthy food a bit. We will probably take some visits up to the farm (about 15-20 min away) to get her interested.

Well I better get to it...oh yeah. As far as I know the end of June works for us to celebrate Grandpa's birthday; we're flexible :)

Love you all--sarah

A perfect marriage...

Last night, we were playing and he asked the girl I was playing with to marry the guy he was playing with. This started a conversation about what marriage is and why people get married and Mike asked Andrew who else he knows that is married. Without missing a beat Andrew replied, "Peanut butter and jelly!" :) Yes, Andrew, many--including your father--would agree with that!

Thanks for initiating the discussion about the summer, Becky. Today is Mike's last day of school (WAHOO!) and we intend to discuss our summer travel plans shortly thereafter. At this point, late June is open, so I'm guessing we could plan our IA travels around those dates, but I'll let you know for sure after we do some planning. At this point, our summer looks to be filled with dissertation revisions while Mike takes on the primary caregiving role with Andrew and we eliminate childcare expenses for a bit. It will be a change for all of us!

Late June

We had a great time in Oak Park this week-end. The soldout tour seemed to run quite smoothly. Erin's skills were put to good use--again. It's also helpful for the organization to have many yrs' experience. It was just fun to stand in line and overhear people discussing the fact that it's a really well-run event. Way-to-go, Erin!!

I think Matt and Lindsay will put Erin's old couch to good use. It's quite a bit better looking than the EarlyAmerican floral that Lindsay's had for several yrs which is ugly and apparently uncomfortable. Thank goodness for duct tape to hold the plastic over the couch from Oak Park to IC!

Erin's going to be coming to DSM 6/25-28 (approximately). She and college friends from Faith are planning an informal reunion on Sat 6/26. So--?6/27 for Grandpa's B-Day?? That works for Dave and me--anyone else??

It was pretty weird being home today--the 'first day of the rest of my life'. Dave's covering Broadlawns for a week so it was just Bella and me. We got alot done!! Did my back hurt less today because it was 70, sunny and high-pressure? or because I had no absolute, carved-in-stone schedule? I don't know-----

Hope everyone is doing well--Becky

Update on Grandpa

Just thought everyone would like to know that Grandpa saw Dr. Goetz today and he thought he was doing well. Took the clamps out of his knee, so it should be more flexible. He had talked to Dr. Harvey and he wanted him on antibiotics for six months as a safety measure for the shoulder infection. They did x-rays and things looked good. He will continue therapy 3 times a week. Goes back to see Dr. Goetz in August (three months).

Andrew called us last night and we really enjoyed that! Hope Sarah, Dan and Jack are all feeling better and hope Becky, Dave and Erin have a good time at the Frank Loyd Wright Tour this weekend, and also that Cheryl and her migraine have parted ways completely by now.

Grandpa Update?

I heard from Mom that Grandpa went home from skilled care--glad to hear that! I hope things are going well with recovery, although I know it always seems so slow.

We're keeping busy as the end of the school year approaches. I gave my music appreciation final exam Thursday night, so just have to grade those and figure final grades. Mike is down to just over 2 weeks of school left! No big summer plans yet, I'll be working on my dissertation revisions and Mike will be with Andrew more. Although I'm trying to figure out what to do for our 10 yr. anniversary! Hard to believe, but it has been that long! We take turns planning an anniversary getaway, usually just a night at a nice B&B, but I'd like to do something more this year.

Erin, I looked at the Wright Plus website--looks really,really cool. We're not Wright afficianados, but we really enjoyed touring his house in Springfield IL (on last year's anniv. getaway!). I could easily get into touring other houses! Hope next weekend has great weather and goes well!

Keeping Busy!

Wright Plus is one week away! I can't believe it is already the middle of May! Let's hope the rain stays away on Friday night and Saturday.

I'm going couch shopping tomorrow. Going to donate my couch to Matt. I've had it a long time, reupholstered it last year, and it's still driving me crazy. Sounds like mine is better than the one Matt currently has, so he can enjoy the good looking very comfortable but annoying couch. Kind of sad to see it go, but I can always go visit it :)

I hope you are feeling good Grandpa!