The Hulk is Recovered

So today I'm pulling into the parking lot at Jackson's school and out of nowhere he says "I found my hulk toothbrush in the trash so I cleaned him off with water."

Er...Wait... what?

"My toothbrush, the purple one with The Hulk on it, it was in the garbage! I took it out and I cleaned it off with some water."

And off he runs into school.

So on the way to work I think about this.  How long was The Hulk in the trash?  Did Jackson brush his teeth with it after he cleaned it off with some water? And all I came up with is this: kids are gross.

3 days

My mom walked this weekend in the Breast Cancer 3 day.  THREE days of walking, 60 miles of walking people!  I am amazed at what that woman can do.  She makes me so proud to call her my mom, she took one weekend out of her summer to spend it accomplishing such an amazing feet and I was proud to cheer her on along the sidelines and raise my hands in the name of finding a cure for Breast Cancer.

In Loving Memory

We are on the other side of a very rough week for our family.  Ron's dad, Joel passed away on Friday.  It was a long road for Joel and our family and we are glad that he is no longer in pain. Last week we knew that things were coming to an end, and on Friday, I asked Ron to meet me at his dad's for lunch. I'm so glad that it worked out, as it was the last time we saw him alive. Unfortunately Jackson was not with us, he was at school.

We entered the room with Addie and Ron raised his voice to call to his dad.  Joel opened his eyes in response but could do no more than that. His breathing was very labored and his was mainly unresponsive. We said our goodbyes and Addie sat next to him on his bed and told her grandpa that she loved him. I just knew this was the last time I would see him. Ron and I shed some tears as we said goodbye in our own ways.  We left his room at about 12:45 and made our way nextdoor to Subway for lunch.

At 3:30 p.m. Ron got the call that his father had just passed away and we all made our way back to the nursing home to say a final goodbye before the coroner picked up his body.  When we got there we learned that Uncle Glen was with Joel when he died and while Glen would have rather not been there right at the time, we were all so relieved to know that he did not die all alone.  He died knowing that those that loved him had said their goodbyes and he could go on.

I will miss the connection that I shared with Joel, the friendly but relentless banter and seeing the joy in his eyes when my kids were around.  I will continue to work to share my memories of Joel with my children so that they have stories they can share about Grandpa Joel.

Random Thoughts

The first tomato from our garden was picked by Jackson and cut by Jackson to make BLTs. Neither kid was really fond of eating the tomato though.

Building a shed is getting old.

I've started running.  I find that it's been a very good escape to put my earbuds in and run, run away from my responsibilities if only for 20 minutes feels revitalizing.

Ron is building a shed, starting up fall softball, working a lot and thinking about buying an electric guitar.

  I am in my last easy term for school.  One Psychology course for me has been educational and relatively painless.

Next term and the one after that are going to kick my arse.

Wordless Wednesday (Getting Along)

Dr. Seuss

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind."
-Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss is represented well these days across the MN Zoo.  Jackson used the opportunity for a Dr. Seuss photo shoot.  Can you spot him?

 

Vacation Time

I wish that vacations would last forever.  Last week, Ron's mom was out of town for the week and because she watches Addie while we work we decided it would be a good week to take some vacation time and hang out around town.

On Monday evening we headed up to Pine City to see Grandpa's new place and take him out to dinner at the Pizza Pub.  We had a good time and Grandpa seemed to really enjoy his time with the kids.

Tuesday was dedicated to the shed project.  Not much fun for me but I did learn to use an HVLP sprayer to paint the shed which was a good time.

Wednesday was another project day, we finished painting Addie's bedroom.  Dark pink and light pink stripes now line her four walls.  Addie says "it's pretty."


Finally Thursday was dedicated to FUN.  For the morning we tooled around Minnehaha Falls in our rented surrey bike and the afternoon was spent at Bunker Hill water park.  We enjoyed an afternoon laying in tubes making our way around the lazy river and got our workout in chasing Addie and Jackson around the pool play area.  Jackson is now really comfortable in the water after taking his swim lessons so he just runs up and down and around the playground.  Ron and I want to be by his side as much as possible so we find ourselves working hard to keep up with him.  Addie is also pretty comfortable in the water experimenting with floating and jumping.

On Friday, Ron and I took turns working.  I worked from home and Ron went into the office while Jackson had swim lessons.  When we could finally close down our computers we were able to have some fun again.

The weekend brought our friends Katie and Jesse and Liam to town.  We had a blast!  We made it out to Little Canada Days, marched in the parade and went to the MN Zoo.

It was a fun-filled week and it was hard to leave the kids again to go back to work!

A $5 Find -- I Love Garage Sales