Football

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Montana Grandma



Gramps



Uncle Erik - College Dude

First Day of School - Take II

Okay, so I was pretty much focused on my own angst and forgot the fun of the first day of school. Here goes daddy off to work.

Family, Football and Farm Days

This Labor Day weekend we traveled to Bozeman, MT to visit family. My brother Erik is starting school at Montana State University this fall and they had their first football game on Saturday. He is a music major and therefor in the marching band. If you have ever heard the adage, "If you don't like the weather in Montana wait five minutes and it will change", you would have been an eye witness to this. We went to the game in hot sunny weather and just after half time they cleared the stadium due to lightening threat. Wow.

Sunday saw beautiful weather for Farm Days at The Museum of the Rockies before the storm moved in. It seemed to drop 20 degrees in 20 minutes.

We woke up to rain on Monday morning and hit snow going home. Oh, wonderful Montana "fall" weather. But overall it was a truly terrific weekend. We got to spend time with family and friends, baby Etta got to "strut" her stuff and it was a wonderful time.

Hard to believe that one year ago we spent a family weekend in Seattle. Baby Etta had just been discovered. It seems like an eternity ago yet a blink of an eye.

Praise be to God!

4 Months!

Four months old and her four month appointment. The shots were still very painful but she didn't cry as long after. I gave her some Baby Tylenol before we went and now she is snoozing in her swing.

Stats:

Weight: 12 lbs 10 oz - 29%
Height: 24" - 41%
Head Circum: 40 1/2 cm - 38%

(We are glad that her head and height percentages are evening out a bit!)

The First Day of School

Today is the first day of school.

And I am not there.

I am at home with Etta, sitting unshowered at almost 9:00 in the morning hoping that she will sleep for just 10 more minutes.

I have been going to the first day of school for the last 24 years. Wow. That makes me feel kind of old. (Well, at least according to my brother.) Every year I have been beyond excited the night before school starts and have always gotten up excited and ready to go.

Not today. Getting up this morning was just like getting up every day for the last four months. Well, except for the fact that Etta went to sleep at 10:00 last night and didn't get up until 6:30. That is cause for excitement it itself.

I really don't know what to think or how to feel. On one hand I really miss the freshness of the new school year. The kids excitement of coming back to school, seeing teachers and friends, learning. All of those reasons why I became a teacher in the first place. The challenge, the energy, the look of those students as they come in to my classroom. It is easy, sitting at my dining room table, to only remember the good times. The great times. The kids that I got along with really well. The joy of a performance done well and applauded. But in the back of my head, peeking around the corner are the not so good times. The back talking students, the constant chatter, begging kids to be in band "just one more year", disrespect from some parents and even some fellow staff, the long days and the occassional crashed grade book. The stress, stress, stress.

And I need to take a moment to remember what I have right here.



What a blessing she is to us. We prayed to God to give us a child. We prayed that she would be born toward the end of the year so that we could have all summer watching her grow. We prayed that it would be at a time when I could take a year off of teaching to stay home and nurture her myself. And you know what? God answered our prayers. Every single one. I had an uneventful pregnancy, Etta was born healthy and wonderful at the end of April, Bob finished his thesis and was able to spend the entire summer being a good dad and a terrific husband. I was granted a year of leave, and here I am. God is amazing.

So why did I have a tear in my eye as Bob backed out of the driveway this morning? Why do I have an ache in my heart thinking about what I am NOT doing today versus being thankful for what I can do? Does that make me a bad person? Because it sure makes me feel like one.

I would't trade this experience or this baby girl for anything in the world. But I just might grieve what once was.

Aunt Molly visits!

Oh, and Uncle Jim too.

We were so blessed with the visit of Bob's sister Molly and her husband Jim. They have been in Kuwait for the last year and will be home again at Christmas. They were already gone when we found out we were expecting (well, technically we knew, but only for a couple of days...) We had been looking foward to their visit and it went by entirely too quickly. Here are a few highlights from the visit.











Hurry home and be safe!