Date Night

Every year our school puts on an all school production.  This usually involves the drama students in middle and high school and any students in grade 1-5 that want to participate - although this year I noticed that there were no 1st or 2nd graders involved.

This year, the chosen production was Suessical the Musical.  

It is a complex amalgamation of Dr. Suess's most famous books.

I was planning to take Z. and decided to make it a complete date night by starting with dinner at Taco Bell (cheap date).

It is so hard to get a good picture of Z.  If I act real fast I can get one like this:

But only one...then he does something like this:

The play was very good...I am always amazed by the amount of talent that exists in our small school.  Sadly, we were not allowed to take pictures during the show, but I got some after the show.

And Matt looking so professional working the sound board.

It was a nice date night.

Ollie Comes to School

Back in February when Ollie was in the play he had to come to school with me.  The kids loved it and have been begging me to bring him again!


Today half of the students were gone to practice for another school play, and the remaining students were having a free day, which equaled no teaching for me...so Ollie came to school today.

 He didn't get much attention at all...

Nope...none...

He had a terrible day

Pathetic....isn't he?

It's Whats For Dinner

Return of nice weather means return of the nightly walk and crazy dog knows it!

Lately, he has focused on one certain area of the backyard and goes into full fledged hunting mode when he's there.

Sniffing and digging

Shoving his head into holes big enough to...well...fit his head into.

looking for a supplement to his dog food dinner.


Chipmunks...moles...squirrels....mice...it doesn't matter...it's all goooood!!!


And me: I'm already full from eating dinner so
I just enjoy watching the re-birth of God's beautiful creations.

Interesting

It's amazing what you'll find when you google your deceased grandparent's names:

I also found this little page for my grandma:

In Memory of

Marie E Charles (1920 - 2001)

Marie E Charles is on Sysoon. Personal Death record and Detailed information about the deceased person. [49956736-en]

www.sysoon.com/deceased/marie-e-charles-40

Share Your Memories and Sympathies and Join the Bereaved!

·         Date of Birth: ** January 17 1920

·         Date of Death: ** August 29 2001

·         Social Security Number (SSN): ***-34-817* ?

·         Zodiac: unknown, Lat: capricorn

·         Died at Age: 81 years

·         Lived: 29810 days

·         Birth Anniversary:  in 268 days [+]

·         Death Anniversary:  in 127 days [+]

* Login or Sign-up to show all important data, death records and obituariesabsolutely for free! or Write a brief biography of the deceased and present it to the world. This can be a wonderful, heartwarming experience


I couldn't find one for my grandpa though. 






Interesting...but probably only to me.

Obituary

Stella Roberts

April 21, 2012

The Daily News

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IRON MOUNTAIN - Stella H. Roberts, 96, of 417 E. Stanton St. in Iron Mountain, died on Tuesday, April 17, 2012, at her home.

Stella was born on Dec. 5, 1915, in Iron Mountain, daughter of the late Carl and Hilda (Nordlund) Carlson. She also resided in Breitung Township, Waukesha, Green Bay and Little Suamico.

Stella worked for several years as an inspector for the Perfex Corporation in Kingsford. She was a department manager at Montgomery Ward & Co. for 16 years, retiring in 1971.

Her life was devoted to her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She enjoyed knitting, crocheting and sewing for her family. She also enjoyed stamp collecting and was a member of the philatelic club.

Stella was the longest standing member of the First Evangelical Lutheran Church in Iron Mountain, both in age and tenure. She was a 1933 graduate of Kingsford High School.

Of Swedish decent, she enjoyed researching her family genealogy, tracing her ancestry back to the 1700s in Oland, an island in the Baltic Sea. Her ancestors were farmers and emigrated to America via England.

Stella married Elmer Roberts on Feb. 19, 1972, in Iron Mountain. They were married 32 years before he preceded her in death on July 12, 2008.

Stella is survived by her sons, Paul (Mary) Olson of Florida and Gary (Evelyn) Olson of Iron Mountain; her daughters, Gail (Ralph) Valine of Florence Wis. and Diane (Bob) Ivey of Clarksville, Tenn.; 11 grandchildren; 20 great-grandchildren; nine great-great grandchildren; one great-great-great grandchild; and many nieces and nephews.

In addition to her husband, she was also preceded in death by her son Dale; two infant daughters; five brothers, C. Helmer, Gerhard, Robert, Roy, Oliver and Albin Carlson; five sisters, Hilder Weber, Linnea Erickson, Elve DeLano, Edythe Schinderle, and Agnes Bundy. She was the last survivor of her generation.

Memorial services will be held in May.

Burial will be in Iron Mountain Cemetery Park.

Condolences to the family of Stella Roberts may be expressed online at ernashfuneralhomes.com.

The family has entrusted the Erickson-Rochon & Nash Funeral Home of Iron Mountain with the funeral arrangements.

This little article does not even begin to describe who my grandma really was.  Realistically, what five or ten paragraph summary can sum up all that a person has meant to those that love him/her.  


First, there are a couple mistakes that the teacher in me cannot overlook.  My grandparents were married for 36 years, not 32 (Feb. 1972 to July 2008 is 36 years last time I counted).  And it says she was preceded in death by five brothers but lists six names.  Not sure why.  She was the youngest of twelve kids.


Some important things about my grandma not listed in the obituary are:
- she was highly intelligent.  So intelligent, in fact, that she was allowed to completely skip the third grade.  Even though she was the youngest in her graduating class, she was still the valedictorian.


- she had a love for History.  She would spend hours researching presidents and collecting copies of documents that were important to our country.  She clipped newspaper and magazine articles or tediously hand wrote information to organize into notebooks or binders.  I loved talking politics with her because she was so smart and informed.  I was even able to overlook the fact that she was a raging democrat!!!! 

- on our weekend visits up there we were treated like royalty.  Not only would she insist on taking us out for dinner, she would also insist on making us a huge breakfast with eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, cereal, milk, juice, and coffee!  Then, as we would hug them goodbye, either she or my grandpa would try and slip us some money "for gas or food on the way home."  Because we would always refuse to take it, they became pretty good at hiding it in places we wouldn't find until much later.


- finally, she was able to live at home until her final moment because she had the most AMAZING home caregiver - Denese.  I am sad that she was not mentioned in the obituary because words cannot express how grateful we are for all that she has done for the past 4 years.  She went far beyond what she was required to do by her job.  She not only cared for my grandma but she cared about my grandma. And those are two hugely different things. 

Grandma...I miss you.  But know you are joyfully in the presence of our Heavenly Father.

There's Something About Tuesdays

I was thinking last night...working through all the grief that comes with losing a loved one...and I came to this realization:
On Tuesday January 12, 1988, my Grandpa Charles (mom's dad) died
On Tuesday August 23, 1993, my mother-in-law Marion died.
On Tuesday August 29, 2001, my Grandma Charles (mom's mom) died.
On Tuesday February 4, 2002, my father-in-law Larry died.
On Tuesday April 17, 2012, my Grandma Roberts (dad's mom) died.


I don't think I like Tuesdays anymore!

Money Well Spent

Do you remember the bribe I offered Zack in basketball.  My intention initially was to bring him out of his shell...well...yeah...I guess it worked.  I ended up owing him lots of money.


Anyway, he has mostly spent it all except for a remaining $30.00 that he had set aside and earmarked for a video game he wanted to get once summer vacation started.  I was making him wait until summer to prevent said new video game from being a distraction from his school work.


To get on with this already-too-long-story, we were listening to our local k-love radio station (christian music) in the car this afternoon...as we always do.  Their annual fundraiser telethon was wrapping up after a week in full gear.  I was not sure if Zack was even listening when from the back seat I hear:


"Mom, I want to give them my basketball money."


I gulped hard and asked "are you sure?"


"Yep, I'm sure."


Okay.  I handed him my phone. 


He dialed the phone and talked to the operator while I may or may not have been sobbing like a dork behind my sunglasses at his kind heart.

Oh...Grandmother

What a glorious day!!!


Today my grandma left this fallen world and gazed upon the face of God.


I am sad...for myself. But so excited for her.


I will probably do a more detailed post later but, for now, I don't think I can string together coherent sentences.


I will miss her so much.

Zack-Four to Five

2003 will not be remembered for having a great start.  After all, the year 2003 began as I drove home from the hospital in the pouring rain...leaving C.J. behind (with his father) in the PICU at Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach.  On New Years Day we watched football games in intensive care as he was receiving a blood transfusion...the direct result of a tonsillectomy gone bad!


By the end of the month my mother would also be hospitalized with sepsis from an untreated urinary tract infection that leaked into her bloodstream.
  
But Zack's birthday was a shining spot in the month of January. He got Thomas the Tank Engine gifts, including a conductor hat and vest.

He seriously loved his Thomas and could play alone for hours with it.

He also had to bring a train or two along when we would go to Disney.  I didn't mind because it kept him busy and quiet while we waited in lines.

And to spend a few dollars to keep him busy for hours was often a good trade-off for me.  He got a little spoiled

Our Day Care enrollment usually went down quite a bit over the summer and despite the fact that most of the employees were taking 2 week vacations, the owners were still looking for people willing to shorten their hours...ME!!!  That summer I switched my work hours to 9-4...mostly so that we could stay up later and sleep in a little.  


I took a 2 week vacation in July and the boys and I spent a few days at Disney.  I found a ridiculously cheap motel for like $40.00 a night on HWY 192. 

We had a great time and some of my favorite pictures of the boys are from that trip - it's not often that you could catch Jon smiling at Disney.

All wearing their karate shirts

I forgot to mention that Zack began karate at the same place the boys went to.  The normal start age was 4 but they let siblings start a little earlier so he actually started a couple months before he turned 4...the same time the older two earned their black belts.

After returning from our vacation Zack had an ear infection.  He never had an awful lot but he had enough...and he could run ridiculously high fevers with them.  Later, we would find out that his hearing was significantly compromised and that he needed to get tubes.


As the school year began again, Zack thankfully did not have to change rooms or teachers at schools.  He really loved his teacher and so did I.

Christmas was not great that year as all three kids were sick either before, during, or after the 25th.  Jon was probably the worst and I spent most of Christmas day at the ER with him while they tried to re-hydrate him.  It was awful.


We had another party at school and spent Zack's 5th birthday at EPCOT center but I haven't gotten around to scanning those pictures yet so...TBC

Zack - Three to Four

Once Zack moved to his new room at Day Care, I tried my absolute hardest to get him potty trained,  but it was a complete no go.  He was no doubt the most frustrating to train and, in the end, he was not completely trained until May!

This was his class at Day Care:

He was the youngest one in his class because just after he moved up they decided to restructure how they moved the kids from one class to another and no other moves were going to be made until August.
 These pictures were taken by a company that came to the Day Care.  I loved them!  The company brought their own oufits for the kids.

By June, I couldn't believe that Zack still did not recognize colors.  I decided to make a very concerted effort to get him to learn them...or explore the possibility that he may be color blind.

He was NOT color blind and learned those colors with just a couple nights of work.
I decided to take the whole month of July off from work and take the boys to Wisconsin for a visit.

We drove up via Springfield, Illinois and did some Abraham Lincoln sightseeing.

And also spent a couple days in upper Michigan visiting Great Grandma and Grandpa.
At the Iron Mine:

At the ski jump:

And boating with Grandpa's friend:

It was a great trip and fun time with the boys.

And Zack did so well in the car.  

But things came crashing down quickly once we got back to Florida and returned to school.  Zack had a difficult time re-adjusting to Day Care and his teacher had little tolerance for his tears.  It got so bad that he would begin crying at night about having to go to school the next day!  He would say through his sobs ..."I..am..not..a..baby..I..a..big..boy."  And I just knew...because I had seen it happen with other children...his teacher was calling him a baby for crying.

Since classrooms were being reconstructed at the end of August and he would be moved to a different classroom (different teacher) anyway, I decided to move him back to his old teachers for the two week interim and he was as happy as could be...no more tears.  Ever. He loved his new teacher too.


In October we moved to this new home on Perrotti Lane in Palm Coast.

It doesn't look like much from the outside but it had everything on my checklist...a fenced in backyard, three bedrooms, a large playroom (very large), and a screened in lanai.  
Zack's 4th birthday was on a very cold Friday.  So cold, in fact, that schools we cancelled as morning temps were only in the 20's and the daytime high was only near 40*.  We had a party with his class at Day Care:

We also had a party for him at the new house.  A Thomas the Tank Engine party...his obsession.