The Big 3-2

Happy birthday, mr warillever!

I Couldn't Write, and Didn't Feel Like it Anyway

When we last spoke, I was signing off of the computer to write some Christmas cards.

It took me awhile, okay?

No, honestly, for the first time in my adult life, I actually got all of the cards designed, printed, signed and mailed by the second week of Advent.

But then my computer stopped working. Doesn't load up. Gone completely kaput. I have torn the house apart, but I cannot find the system disks to reinstall windows. Of course this is not surprising given that I have had not needed them once in the seven years I've owned the machine, and we have moved twice in the interim. No computer (obviously) means no blogging, no email, no online newspaper reading, and no catching up on friends' stories.

I have had intermittent access to my husband's work laptop, but haven't posted.

That is because I didn't know what to say.

How do you catch up on a month's worth of updates, especially when that month is December?

Especially when it has been such a tough December.

It all started when mr warillever's cousin had a freak accident and died suddenly. No warning, nothing. Gone. I'll put this one on my list of questions for Jesus if I ever get to heaven...how does such a good person, a father of four, just go -- poof -- without any discernible reason?

While we were out of town for the funeral, an ice storm hit our region. We (along with 500,00 other families in the state) were left without power. Living without lights, computer, and television was refreshing, but without heat in single digit temperatures? Not so nice. Fortunately we have a woodstove and town water -- others (including my sister) were without water for the duration of the outage. Our power was restored in just under three days, just as the temperatures started rising above freezing. My sisters and mr warillever's brother were in the dark for nearly a week.

Then the woman I teach religious education with died. This death wasn't quite as sudden -- she was diagnosed with cancer three years ago -- but it was no less tragic. I was just getting to know her, and am in infinite awe with her unshakable faith in Jesus. Of course this leaves me with yet another question for God -- why would You take a mother away from a 5-year-old boy? Such a faithful, strong, person. Gone.

I have yet to process the grief that two of mr warillever's siblings have been experiencing this Christmas; his sister E's friend died after a long battle with cancer a few days ago and his brother 7's friend fell suddenly ill and has been in a medically-induced coma ever since. [She has died since I drafted this post.]

The long and short of it is that I just haven't felt like writing. I am a naturally positive person, and to be in a funk as Christmas approached was, well, depressing.

Fortunately, the joy of Christmas is infectious. The miracle of our Savior's birth managed to eclipse all of the temporal worries. And the kids, in their holiday excitement, kept me going. We kept up with our Advent reading (more on that later), made pomanders, braided salt dough candy canes, and baked batches and batches of cookies. We baked a birthday cake for Jesus, sang Christmas carols, and watched classics like The Grinch and Christmas Eve on Sesame Street.

There have been some other light moments -- Teresa was born, I got back in touch with two people I hadn't heard from in years, and brought the kids to visit some of my aunts and uncles. I also joined Facebook, chatted with an old friend, and played endless games of Connect4 with my daughter.

And I'm writing again.

Thanking Our Veterans

Our "preschool" task this morning was making Thank You cards for the Veterans in our family -- Uncle Ichabod (Iraq), Uncle E (Korea) and Uncle W (World War II). We will mail them this afternoon.

A quick tip for those of you making cards with emergent writers: Make the card from construction paper or cardstock, but have the child write her signature on a piece of lined paper and glue it into place. This way the perfectionist won't stress about messing up the card, and the sloppy child won't make random marks on the card.

Busy Little Warillevers

Agent 002's class ice-cream social, mr warilever's company picnic, two broken cars and a holy day of obligation all fell in the same week as Agent 004's birthday.

Other than the broken cars, it was a SPLENDID week.

I am too tired to blog coherently, so be prepared for a stream of consciousness brain-dump.

Agent 002 starts first grade (did you hear me? First Grade!) next week. The significance of this is lost on him, but he is excited to take the bus again. That is his favorite part of the school day. I would have thought that it would get old, but it hasn't. So I drew a picture of a bus on the calendar, and he asks me how many days until he gets to ride the bus. Repeatedly. I can't wait until school starts, if only so that he stops asking me about the bus.

The company picnic was loads of fun. His firm has a new tradition of playing an intra-firm softball game, then having a cookout at someone's house. Spouses and children are invited to play, and it is a good time. I made a few good defensive plays, but mr warillever's team won. (We play on opposite teams so that one of us can always be with the kids).

Friday was the Feast of the Assumption, a holy day of obligation for us Catholics. Mr warillever had a packed day, so he went alone to a lunch time mass in the city he works in; I took all four kids to my parents' parish. Even with three adults, it was a nightmare. How quickly we forget what it is like to keep a toddler contained for an hour. A short memory is a very useful thing for parenting....otherwise I am not sure that we would ever have more children.....

Agent 004's birthday deserves its own post or two. I will post some pictures once I wrestle with camera-computer interaction a bit. Very nice. Very nice.

I'll end this mad ramble with a prayer request. Mr warillever's mother had surgery this morning (which went well), but she will have two more in the coming weeks. Please pray for her recovery, and for her very worried children. We are going down for a visit this weekend.

Off to fold paper boats in the backyard swimming pool. Gotta enjoy the sunny weather while we can.

Did God Make You a Soldier?

We spent a few days with mr warillever's brother Ichabod a few weeks ago. He is a gracious host and a good cook. And we always do fun things like go for hikes or go to a nature museum when we are with him.

On this trip we went onto the military base where he works. The kids were fascinated. They peppered him with questions about his job an (mostly) about hi uniform. Then Agent 004 asked him "Did God make you a soldier?"

He paused for a moment and answered, "No. I'd like to think that God approves of what I'm doing, but I chose to be a soldier."

Now she wanted to know (as all of you with three-year-olds will predict), why would he want to be a soldier.

His answer?

1. I get to travel to all sorts of neat places.
2. I feel like I am doing something important to help people.
3. This way I don't have to match my own clothes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

On the same trip, we stopped in at Ichabod's office. I snagged one of his business cards from the pile on his desk.

Army business cards? Does anyone else get the ridiculous image of soldiers exchanging cards in the middle of battle? I am completely aware that the majority of a officer's job (especially in Ichabod's current assignment) is quite civilized and business like, involving things like social functions and networking, but still.... that image made me giggle.

While I Have Been Away

One of those ironies of blogging is that when life is most interesting I have the least computer time to jot it down for posterity.

Cousin A made his First Communion this past Saturday. Mr warillever's entire family came up to Massachusetts for the festivities, and some of the guests continued the trek up to our place to continue the party.

Grandma and Uncle Ichabod stayed at our house. We had a pleasant Mother's Day breakfast after mass, then went to a flea market. I bought books (surprise, surprise), and Agent 004 spent her $1 budget on a beautiful bracelet.

Since none of the warillever clan had seen Agent 002 for his birthday, he received another deluge of presents including Lincoln Logs, sidewalk paint, and a Hess monster truck.

Mr warillever and I have been very busy working on the mudroom. We are hoping for an early summer opening. The tile looks incredible. Once I find the camera cord I will share his handiwork with the world.

Mr warillever has been tying up the computer every evening, dreaming up a sumer adventure. I won't release the details until we study the feasibility a bit more, but rest assured, we plan on doing this up in true warillever fashion. Just hope we don't end up abandoning our vehicle in Iowa like we did on our last roadtrip.....

Don't expect me to be gone so long next time..... working on a WFMW post about our "new-and-improved" daily schedule......

The Cast of Characters

The Main Characters:

• Agent 002 -- our son, born in 2002.
• Agent 004 -- our daughter, born in 2004.
• Cousin F -- my Goddaughter and niece, cousin to the Agents, born in 2005. Spends her weekdays at our home.
  
• Cousin P -- my nephew, cousin to the Agents, born in 2007. Spends his weekdays at our home.
• Janice -- the cat
  
• mr warillever -- my blessed husband, also known as "Papa"
• Mama -- that's me!

The Supporting Staff:

• Grammy -- my mother; Grandmother to the Agents, F, P, Aa and M.
• Grampy -- my father; Grandfather to he Agents, F, P, Aa and M.
• Grandma -- mr warillever's mother; Grandmother to the Agents as well as Cousins E, C, T, B, A, Mm and D.
• The Uncles -- my brothers Jimbo* and Jethro; mr warillever's brothers On, 7, and Ichabod; and our sisters' husbands -- three Ms and a D.
  
• The Aunts -- my sisters M and Kak, as well as Uncle On's wife K.
  
• The Ants -- mr warillever's sisters E and P.
• Cousins -- in order they are E, C, T, B, A, Aa, Mm, M, F, D, and P
  

*Jimbo has also been called JR on this blog

Grand Adventures

Not that this is anything new, but you may have noticed that I am behind on my blog posting. I have a good excuse this time, I swear. We have been out of the country on a grand adventure -- five days in the Canadian backwoods.

Okay, not really the backwoods, but we did spend five days playing outdoors in Canada. Grandma's Christmas present to the entire clan was a 5-day stay at a ski resort. Our home for the week was a luxurious log cabin ten-minutes from a large alpine ski resort and within a national park (or is that parc national?).

It was amazing, astonishing, extraordinary, incredible and lots of other initial-vowel adjectives. Did I mention that it was really nice?

The big kids (which includes Agent 002) spent three full days skiing on the mountain, while the little folks (including Agent 004) tried out the bunny hill and explored the village.

Aunt K, Uncle Ichabod and I got a chance to head out on cross-country skis for an afternoon while the dads took the kids snow-tubing.

A marvelous time.

Now to explain the dearth of blogging. Have you ever packed for an outdoor cold-weather vacation? On the day after Christmas? While trying to keep the rear window unobstructed for the six-hour drive?

Impossible, I tell you. Well, not if you have mr warillever around. He pulled out the van's back bench and built a ski rack along the floor. Then we piled our baggage on top of that. It was an act of sure genius. We managed to fit eight pairs of skis (we each have a pair for cross-country and downhill), as well as snowsuits, mittens, hats, clothing, and Christmas gifts.

And then there is all the work after a trip. Laundry (loads and loads of laundry), finding places for all of the new toys that generous aunts and uncles gifted, and dealing with young children on a post holiday, post-vacation let-down.

But the laundry is almost done, the toys are mostly away, and the children are falling back into a normal routine. And it really was a grand adventure.

Where Do I Start?

This has been one of those weeks where there is so much going on that I haven't had anything to say.

Mr warillever's uncle died on Tuesday. He went into the hospital the week that Ant M died, so mr warillever and his brother visited him while we were passing through on the way home. The three of them had a nice visit.

I first met this uncle a year after mr warillever and I started dating. I was outside playing in the leaves with the nephews, and happened to spring out of a pile of leaves just as he was coming up the walk. He looked up, startled, and asked, "What is that, a @#*-ing leprechaun?" I have never lived that down (at least as far as mr warillever's brother 7 is concerned).

In other news, the agents have discovered a new game -- slapping whiffle ball bats on the surface of the wading pool to soak each other. Yes, it is the last week of September, in New Hampshire, and the kids have been swimming every day. Blame global warming. Oh wait -- we had snow on the ground in May this year, so the seasons must just be a bit behind schedule...

My internet service has been spotty (and we'll be out of town for a bit), so you may not hear from me for a few days.

Out of Town

We're heading "over the river" again, so posting will be light for a few days.

Mr warillever's godmother passed away yesterday. She has been sick for a long time

The next post (about death) has been in "draft" status for weeks, but this morning's chat with the agents brought it back to my attention.

A cute aside -- We visited Aunt M in July, knowing that it might be the last time that we would see her. She completely spoiled the kids, giving them about seven lollipops each, without insisting that they eat the lunch she had prepared for them. When I told them that she died, the Agents wanted to know if Jesus will let Aunt M give them lollipops when she is heaven.

I'm glad that they have a good memory of her.

Father's Day Hero

It's Father's Day, and we are letting mr warillever sleep in, because he deserves it.

When a feverish child woke us up at 3:30 last night, he was the one who was able to calm her own and get her back to sleep (after 45 minutes in the rocking chair together).

I held her, gave her tylenol, and laid down next to her. She was still miserable. But all it took was a lot of Papa patience.

And she is up and about and obnoxiously loud this morning.

We'll let him sleep until the kid noise wakes him up.

Cousin F is 2

Cousin F turns 2
Originally uploaded by warillever.

Cousin F had a birthday as well.

She and Agent 004 are now the same age.

It is a privilege to watch her grow.

Catching Up with Old Friends

I met up with a group of people from high school on Saturday. We celebrated Cinco de Mayo with frozen drinks on the deck, then moved on to dinner at a nice little Italian restaurant.

I hadn't seen two of them since high school.

And nothing had changed.

Or everything has. We are all doing very different things in very different surroundings, but we are all the same people we were twelve years ago. As one of my astute friends remarked, "we're all in different places, but it all makes sense."

I am not saying that we haven't grown -- we have -- but that all of us have followed our own natures. And everyone seems happy with the place they're in.

And it was really fun to get out of the house for an evening.

The Incredible Plastic Egg

Eggs
Originally uploaded by warillever.

Eggs. Is there anything they can't do?

Last weekend we worked on patterns:


We hunted for jelly bean filled eggs at the town park, Grandma's house, and Aunt E's. Aunt P had the real thing -- hard-boiled.

Yesterday the eggs participated in water fun.

Agent 002 and I played "bunny soccer" this afternoon. We crawled around on all fours like bunnies, trying to swat a purple plastic egg into a goal. I fortunately don't have any pictures of that.......

Wecome Baby PJ!

Cousin F has a baby brother.

M&M are adopting sweet little, few-days-old PJ.

According to the pictures, he is gorgeous.

He pooped three times in the first ten minutes they knew him. Atta boy!

Can't wait to meet him -- M&M will be back in a few days.

Good News (Belated)

I always forget to share good news with y'all. What does that say about me?

JR was able to go home on Wednesday. He will have a nurse and therapist visit every day for a while, but he is home. Very, very cool.

Thank you for the prayers. Keep them up for a while if you would.

A turn for the better?

JR smiled at my sister and squeezed a nurse's finger yesterday.

Preschool by the wayside

Anyone reading this blog for "homepreschool" blogging need not check back for a while. With JR still in the hospital, I have not been spending much time on learning activities with kids. My siblings and I have been taking shifts in his room to ensure that someone he recognizes will be there when he becomes more aware. Auntie M and I have been trading off so that one of us watches the kids while the other visits JR. The kids (including Auntie K's, who are babysat by her in-laws when she visits JR) have all been very good, but are definitely thrown off by the changes in their routines.

JR's pneumonia is finally improving a bit, but it looks like it will be a long road yet. The prayers seem to be working, so keep at it please.

The warillevers do Washington

Or trip to Washington was not all business. We spent some time visiting with Mr warillever's brothers Uncle Ichabod and Uncle 7, ate great food, and patronized two of the Smithsonian institutions.

My favorite was the Lebanese food on Saturday, but I think the agents had the most fun at the National Zoo.

More Prayers, Please

It looks like your prayers for my uncle have been helping, so I have another request.

My brother JR was admitted to the hospital this weekend for pneumonia. While there, he had an asthma attack which exacerbated an already precarious situation. He is doing much better, but it looks like he will be in the hospital for a while. Please pray for him and his recovery.