Back to School DAZE
I know that time flies, and the older you get, the faster people say it goes. I have a complaint. I don't like that!!!
Just a week from today, I will officially have a 1st grader, a 3rd grader and an 8th grader. We are desperately grasping at everything we can to hang on to our summer!! We have put off the school shopping, because we have been running amuck with everything else that has been going on, but I guess that will have to be done this weekend. Thank GOD for WalMart!!
And the Blackberry blues are disappearing, being traded in for the Blackberry wedding bells, finally. I have had it for a couple of weeks, now. I have been researching online, reading up, and doing whatever I can to figure out my new all-in-one handheld computer, phone, camera, calendar, game console, caller ID, voicemail, email, password keeper, video camera, alarm, facebook, document keeper, mapper, messenger-er (;-0), internet browser, list keeper, and address book (and more!) thingy. PHEW! But I'm getting there! I made it to get my nails and hair done last week, and managed to not only find appointments I had already made, but input a few more!! WOW!! We're movin up in the world, aren't we?
So today, I am making a list of all the things we need to buy for school (and storing it in my Blackberry, of course!). Shoes, shorts, jackets, socks, pencils, notebooks, paint shirts, ahhhh the list goes on and on. But at least now, I have no excuse not to buy everything on the list, because I can't say I left it on a piece of paper at home -- I typically take my phone with me everywhere!
We are off to the pool this afternoon -- our time to utilize the pool pass is dwindling... Tomorrow: play date, eye checkups for all 3 kids, dinner with friends, pulling some weeds, spraying the yard, and cleaning out the camper. My Grandma Leibbrandt always used to tell us kids that "Busy hands are happy hands!" And I couldn't be any happier... I suppose she'd say that was a good thing, and I'd have to agree!
And I have one more little story to inspire you for the rest of the week...
Our families had been seated in the front pews of the church, and we had just finished reading through the cards and gifts given in memory of Grandpa Clay. We all took a moment to pray, and made our way out of the sanctuary, giving Grandpa one last look, lying so peacefully. No machines, no noise, just peace.
We made our way outside, wiping our tears, and hugging our kids. The emotions in the air were very heavy. As we stepped outside, into the sunlight, we saw the beautiful flowers around us, and all the trees waved ever-so-gently in the breeze. We glanced up as two doves fluttered around the courtyard, flew by us, and then came to rest on the top of the church roof, perched together, looking down at all of us.
They remained there from that point, through the entire ceremony--through all the scuffing of heels of all the wives clutched arm in arm with their husbands, hearing all the sniffles, seeing the tears, and watching the mass of visitors make their way to the street full of cars--but perching in the same exact spot until we left the church to take Grandpa to his final resting place in his plot, now carefully prepared, beside Grandma Nellie in the cemetery.
I personally believe those two birds were Grandma Nellie and Grandpa Clay, together again, sent by God at that particular moment in time, through creatures so beautiful and so significant, there with us on that day of celebration of his life. How profound a moment it was, knowing this was a reminder that we'd all be reunited someday. Jason and I knowingly exchanged glances and then a smile, through our tears, with a simple understanding that everything WAS going to be ok. It's been a long few months, but a refreshing reminder that everything we do, everything we see, everything has a bigger purpose.
Just a week from today, I will officially have a 1st grader, a 3rd grader and an 8th grader. We are desperately grasping at everything we can to hang on to our summer!! We have put off the school shopping, because we have been running amuck with everything else that has been going on, but I guess that will have to be done this weekend. Thank GOD for WalMart!!
And the Blackberry blues are disappearing, being traded in for the Blackberry wedding bells, finally. I have had it for a couple of weeks, now. I have been researching online, reading up, and doing whatever I can to figure out my new all-in-one handheld computer, phone, camera, calendar, game console, caller ID, voicemail, email, password keeper, video camera, alarm, facebook, document keeper, mapper, messenger-er (;-0), internet browser, list keeper, and address book (and more!) thingy. PHEW! But I'm getting there! I made it to get my nails and hair done last week, and managed to not only find appointments I had already made, but input a few more!! WOW!! We're movin up in the world, aren't we?
So today, I am making a list of all the things we need to buy for school (and storing it in my Blackberry, of course!). Shoes, shorts, jackets, socks, pencils, notebooks, paint shirts, ahhhh the list goes on and on. But at least now, I have no excuse not to buy everything on the list, because I can't say I left it on a piece of paper at home -- I typically take my phone with me everywhere!
We are off to the pool this afternoon -- our time to utilize the pool pass is dwindling... Tomorrow: play date, eye checkups for all 3 kids, dinner with friends, pulling some weeds, spraying the yard, and cleaning out the camper. My Grandma Leibbrandt always used to tell us kids that "Busy hands are happy hands!" And I couldn't be any happier... I suppose she'd say that was a good thing, and I'd have to agree!
And I have one more little story to inspire you for the rest of the week...
Our families had been seated in the front pews of the church, and we had just finished reading through the cards and gifts given in memory of Grandpa Clay. We all took a moment to pray, and made our way out of the sanctuary, giving Grandpa one last look, lying so peacefully. No machines, no noise, just peace.
We made our way outside, wiping our tears, and hugging our kids. The emotions in the air were very heavy. As we stepped outside, into the sunlight, we saw the beautiful flowers around us, and all the trees waved ever-so-gently in the breeze. We glanced up as two doves fluttered around the courtyard, flew by us, and then came to rest on the top of the church roof, perched together, looking down at all of us.
They remained there from that point, through the entire ceremony--through all the scuffing of heels of all the wives clutched arm in arm with their husbands, hearing all the sniffles, seeing the tears, and watching the mass of visitors make their way to the street full of cars--but perching in the same exact spot until we left the church to take Grandpa to his final resting place in his plot, now carefully prepared, beside Grandma Nellie in the cemetery.
I personally believe those two birds were Grandma Nellie and Grandpa Clay, together again, sent by God at that particular moment in time, through creatures so beautiful and so significant, there with us on that day of celebration of his life. How profound a moment it was, knowing this was a reminder that we'd all be reunited someday. Jason and I knowingly exchanged glances and then a smile, through our tears, with a simple understanding that everything WAS going to be ok. It's been a long few months, but a refreshing reminder that everything we do, everything we see, everything has a bigger purpose.
Comments