Things that end with -ing

*Many of these pictures were taken months ago… Just fyi.

Cleaning

Playing in their playroom

Building

Reading

Raking & Fighting (Notice the series of events in the following sequence of pictures…taken today.)  

Loving

Eating (with spoons)  Logan’s much more advanced at this skill.  Nathan’s a mess!

Coloring

Talking

Nathan tries to repeat everything we say.  He speaks very clearly.  It’s fascinating to hear so many little words come from him.  He has so many words, but most frequently says: hi, up!, Mamma, Rollei, Daddy, Mamaw, Barney, my knees, hat, apple, shoes, etc… He has recently started to call roll when he wakes up.  His little voice is so cute.

Logan doesn’t say nearly as much as his brother.  He has just started saying several words pretty clearly without prompting, such as: hi, Barney, Rollei, Mamma, Daddy, up, blue, bye bye, etc… We are getting his hearing checked, but my gut tells me there is nothing wrong.  The twins are quite different, and I expect he’ll talk more when he’s good and ready!

And… Since this is my form of a journal, and I want to remember…

I just want to mention that the boys have been pacifier-free for a couple of weeks.  This is not such a big deal for Logan, but for Nathan, it’s huge.  I just put them all away one day.  Nathan only mentioned “pa pa” a few times, but I ignored his request and we just moved on.  No fits. :-)

They Got Mail

Nathan & Logan’s Mama and Daddy may have accidentally done nothing for them on Valentine’s day.  Oops!  Great Aunt Pat remembered them on Love Day, though!  She sent them cute little cards (with stuffing!) and the sweetest little book.

    In the words of Nathan, “Tank koo” Aunt Pat! 

For My Sister

TMEA

We left our little guys for 5 days to attend the Texas Music Educator’s Association conference & expo in San Antonio last week.  The boys stayed here with my mom, and Aunt Pat stayed at night to help.  Todd and I had a fantastic time getting away, relaxing in the evenings, being together, freezing to the bone, visiting with friends, walking the River Walk, eating at Casa Rio, and promoting his business.    

Once again this year, Todd has many new bands/choirs/orchestras that want him to photograph their group.  Going into this year, we were a little hesitant to take on more business, just because Todd’s already working at almost full capacity.  Looks like I will be doing more of the photo shoots this coming year.  

We had the option to print a 3rd nametag, so we jumped on that.

I could buy 6 decent houses with the value of this cello.

We enjoyed our time away, but missed Logan and Nathan, too.  We returned to these sweet angel faces! :-)  Yes, that is spaghetti up Nathan’s nose.  **Mamaw and Aunt Pat, you two are amazing!  We are so thankful for you and for keeping the twins while we were away.  Now it’s your turn to recoup!

More About Goodbye

I guess some might think it strange to post pictures from a funeral, but I thought these pictures, taken by my sister, were great.  There was so much about Dad’s funeral that I know he would have liked. 

Flowers from his grandkids.  “Our TimPa” Some of Dad’s tennis students with their rackets.  This was really special.The police escorts shut Hwy 59 down for several miles.  We had a very long procession.  When we got to the cemetery, we moved the casket from the hearse to Dad’s crew cab to transport him to the grave.    His casket spread included a vintage racket.  The little yellow, round flowers looked like tennis balls. Nice view of the flowers toward 2 of his busses. 

The day started out gloomy and rainy.  It was a type of day Dad would have grumbled about, but as we drove from the church to the cemetery, the sun came out and made for a beautiful day; one that Dad would have loved. 

I just want to thank so many of you, again, that prayed for Dad while he battled this cancer for a year and a half.  So many of you are dear friends of his and your love and care has really shown through.  Bob Ethington, you were very dear to Dad.  He had such respect for you and I know he was honored to have you speak at his funeral.  You did an amazing job! 

Saying Goodbye

There’s no way I can possibly put together a few paragraphs worth of sentiments to adequately describe my feelings about my dad.  There are, though, several special occasions that are memories I will always cherish…
As a child, I remember one time I was in pretty deep trouble with Mom.  I’m sure I deserved it when she assigned Dad the task of giving me a spanking.  This particular time, though, Dad didn’t think I deserved it (which, I assure you, I did), so he told me he would spank the bed and I would have to cry.  What a softie!  I did end up getting my spanking, though.
Our trip together to Europe in the Summer of ‘99 was really that – a trip!  Our interests were so polar opposite.  Germany, Austria, and France for 10 days was completely centered around everything Volkswagen and Adidas.  I don’t know how many VW shows we went to on that trip.  Touring the Adidas factory, visiting Adi Dassler’s grave, pointing out every VW we saw on the Autobahn, and touring personal VW collections of German friends/enthusiasts, were all certainally not things I had much interest in as an 18-year-old girl.  But, Dad tried to make sure I stayed content.  The man bought me so many Cokes on that trip.  While in Paris, we went to the Louver and Eiffel Tower.  We took the train from Paris to Frankfurt, then rented a car and, after the big VW shows, drove into Salzburg, where we took the Sound of Music tour.  He had never seen the movie, but it has always been one of my absolute favorites, so he did Salzburg and the tour for me.  So many memories were made in that 10 days.  Most of them good; some not so pleasant.  After that trip, nearly every time I saw Dad, he brought it up.  We so enjoyed spending that time together.  I will never forget that.

Adi Dassler’s grave in Germany.  Founder of Adidas.

Overlooking Slazburg, Austria, 1999.

Peter Reduch (sp?) – Dad’s Adidas friend in Germany, 1999.

Throwing the wedding picture in for posterity.  June 28, 2003.

Taken on our father/daughter trip to Tennessee, Summer 2008.  Quirky. 

Nine years ago, Dad had a bad car accident in his ‘52 Split on 1960.  The force of the impact broke the steering column on his chest.  He was life-flighted and spent several days in the hospital with broken ribs, a punctured lung, and a super-bruised raccoon face.  I was home for Christmas from ACU and spent several days with him while he recuperated.  I made him oatmeal for breakfast, then we would spend hours in the living room next to the fire just being together while he healed.  It was a rough time for him.  He was in a lot of pain, and having to not be “on the go” was a challenge for him, but it was a precious time for us together.  I think this was the time that he actually watched The Sound of Music!  Strangely, this event was another thing that he brought up frequently as a time he enjoyed being with me.  He doted on the oatmeal and how I cared for him.  I didn’t do anything special, but he always had a way of showing how very proud he was of me and how much he cared for me.  The real pleasure was mine.
Dad had a way of making people feel special and meaningful.  Family was very important to him- and he was nuts over his grandkids-, and so were his friends.  I’ve never known a person with more friends than Dad.  He had an eclectic mix of friends from many different ‘circles’ of his live, be it VWs, tennis, school, church, McDonald’s and Chick-fil-a breakfast buddies, etc.  Dad always had a trail of visitors at their house.  Friends had no need to call, they would just drop by.  It was unusual for me to drop by at any given time and not find Dad chatting with a friend out in his shop or while he was stringing a racket in the game room.  The thing that stood out to me is that it never seemed like Dad ‘tried’ with people.  He was just himself and that is what appealed to so many.  Todd has said for years that Dad is not only a collector of Volkswagens, but really more a collector of people. 
This is where I could do a “profile” on Dad, listing off all of the things he was to others, but I won’t.  The most important thing Dad was to anyone was what he was to his Father.  He was loyal and always true.  He was loved by so many and saved by One. 
I miss him with all my heart.

I did a Christmas Post

And I worked on writing it for days.  But, while installing a new program on my computer, I accidentally closed Writer (the program I use to compose blogs) before I published my post.  So, it’s gone!

To make things up to myself, a month later,  this quick recap will have to suffice.

Christmas Celebration #1 at Granny& Grandpa’s house:

• Several days of relaxation, fun visiting, and yummy food!
• First Christmas without Aunt Linda.  I missed her smiles, teasing, and joy she always brought to our time together. 
• Twins loved opening presents.  The noisy cars and trucks from Granny & Grandpa were a hit!
• Santa found the boys and left tricycles, DVDs, and other little goodies.
• I didn’t bring my camera.  Todd took a few pictures, but most were taken by me with his camera, which I don’t know how to use.  Blurry results.

Christmas Celebration #2 at Mom & Dad’s house:

• A very late-night, quick event, thrown in the evening we all returned from Granny & Grandpa’s and Christmas Celebration #3 the next morning.
• Logan slept through all of the noise and present-opening.
• Again, no camera.  No pictures, but lasting memories of a cherished time spent together with my parents, brother, sister and her family. 

Christmas Celebration #3 at Aunt Pat’s house:

• I spent most of my time cooking Pioneer Woman’s scalloped potatoes, wrangling kids, and playing Scrabble.  I usually don’t have the opportunity to sit and play games (wonder why?!), so I really enjoyed the opportunity thanks to Todd for spending much of his time and energy rocking Logan, and to the other family ladies who wrangled Nathan. 
• Logan and Nathan were done with traveling by this point, and they let it show all day. :-(
• We ate a delicious evening meal, the “kids” (including K1 & K2) got to open presents, we sang a few songs, and had a fabulous time visiting.
• The boys had their “well pictures” just like K1 & K2 did at about their age.

And since I haven’t blogged in forever, I may as well include my 30th on the 30th birthday info…

Todd took care of the boys for a few hours on my birthday while I went shopping alone.  I took my time and enjoyed getting a few things.  Since the whole family, expect for Steven, was in town, we all went out to Pappasito’s for dinner.  We all had a marvelous time together, and the food was delicious!  Dad got the best seat in the house: a rolling, cushioned office chair!  Todd went overboard and got me the prettiest blue topaz ring!  We didn’t get a family picture together when Steven was in town for Christmas, but we snapped these after dinner that night. 

New Year’s events?  Nothing.  It was great!