So...all 4 of us Wilcoxians have something in the works coming up that we have registered for.
First comes Reese - she is all set to start attending Music Together classes in April. We had Ava in this program for a few years and it was something we all really enjoyed. Getting started a little later with Reese, but I think she'll love it. I took her to a "trial" run on Saturday and she had a ball - it was nice to have some 1:1 time with her and see her get engaged with the singing and dancing. The class meets every Saturday morning for the next 10 weeks.
Next up comes Scot - he is slated to go on an "Honor Flight" on April 30th. He will be flying from the Twin Cities as a guardian volunteer to accompany World War II veterans so that they can visit the World War II Memorial in Washington. He has a few pre-flight meetings in April to find out more about the event. He is very excited to have this opportunity and I'm very happy for him.
My event is in June - I have signed up for the MS150 - a 150 mile bike ride over 2 days to raise money and awareness for MS. Holy crap, that is going to be a long trip! ;-) My best bud Jess and I are riding for Team Medtronic along with a few of our other coworkers. I just got my bike tuned up a few weeks ago and took it for its inaugural run this season yesterday - it was about 50 degrees, a perfect day to get out! I covered 10 miles on the Gateway Trail...it felt good, but gosh, just a fraction of what I'll be riding in June. We have an 8 week training plan that we hope to follow, which should put us on track for the main event - let's hope so! Having 2 dear friends with MS, the cause means a lot to me. I need to raise $300 to participate and am over halfway there. If you would like to sponsor me, shoot me a line! :-) Every little bit will get me closer to my goal.
And finally, Ava. My little 5 year old is going to be starting Kindegarten in the fall so we had her school open house a few weeks ago. Crazy! We have elected to sign her up for full day and are waiting to find out if that request gets fulfilled. The bummer in all of this is that after 5 years, we need to find a new daycare! Our current daycare provider lives in a different school district, so we need to make a switch for that reason. We visited a different provider last Sunday and will probably go with her and make the transition sometime in June or July.
As usual, we're busy, busy, busy! Lots of exciting things to look forward to in the next weeks and months.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Friday, March 18, 2011
"Grandma" Essie
Last weekend we went home to Wausau unexpectedly for a funeral. A very, very special person in my life passed away - our next door neighbor "Essie". My grandparents were all gone when I was very young, so my memories of them are lacking and I missed out on those special bonds. But Essie was always there and filled that void for me as I grew up. She and her husband Henry and daughter Cynthia have lived next door to my parents' house for almost 40 years.
Essie's real name was Esther, but because I struggled with her name, I called her "Essie" from a very young age and it stuck. I used to go over to their house all the time growing up and play the card game "War" with her. Essie would always let me win, but Cynthia never did - and I'd routinely go home crying because of it. She was always feeding me and I especially remember devouring all of the "ground cherries" she gave me from her garden. She never had any grandchildren of her own, so I think we really did cling to each other for that reason over the years - we had that connection from the beginning. They had a cottage in northern WI for a long time and we'd often go up there - I remember swimming, fishing and feeding the chipmunks. They always seemed to have animals around - I loved that about the place. The priest at the funeral told a story of how one summer Essie "adopted" a goose and a mallard who swam by every day for a visit and some food. She named them Pete and Repeat. But one day, one of them didn't come by...Essie later found out the duck had been attacked and wasn't doing well. Eventually it came around again and Essie handfed it, rubbing on it's throat to help get the food down. She saved his life that way. That is just the type of person she was - so wonderfully caring and helpful.
I will miss her terribly. Every time we went home, we made time to visit her and she especially loved seeing Reese and Ava, her "great granddaughters". But Essie lived a long life - she was just shy of her 94th birthday and was still living at home and doing relatively well. It was just in the past few months that she was diagnosed with lung cancer and that eventually was what took its toll on her. Her mind was as sharp as it had always been. She was lucky to still have her daughter Cynthia taking care of her until the very end. Her funeral truly was a "celebration" of her life, because she had a great, long one. Unlike the recent deaths of our loved ones, we don't feel like Essie was taken away from us too soon - it was just right - and we can take comfort in the fact that she is back with her husband Henry and living without pain. I was also honored to be a pallbearer for her, I'm so glad that Cynthia asked me.
Here she is holding Reese a little over 2 years ago:
Miss you and love you, Essie.
Essie's real name was Esther, but because I struggled with her name, I called her "Essie" from a very young age and it stuck. I used to go over to their house all the time growing up and play the card game "War" with her. Essie would always let me win, but Cynthia never did - and I'd routinely go home crying because of it. She was always feeding me and I especially remember devouring all of the "ground cherries" she gave me from her garden. She never had any grandchildren of her own, so I think we really did cling to each other for that reason over the years - we had that connection from the beginning. They had a cottage in northern WI for a long time and we'd often go up there - I remember swimming, fishing and feeding the chipmunks. They always seemed to have animals around - I loved that about the place. The priest at the funeral told a story of how one summer Essie "adopted" a goose and a mallard who swam by every day for a visit and some food. She named them Pete and Repeat. But one day, one of them didn't come by...Essie later found out the duck had been attacked and wasn't doing well. Eventually it came around again and Essie handfed it, rubbing on it's throat to help get the food down. She saved his life that way. That is just the type of person she was - so wonderfully caring and helpful.
I will miss her terribly. Every time we went home, we made time to visit her and she especially loved seeing Reese and Ava, her "great granddaughters". But Essie lived a long life - she was just shy of her 94th birthday and was still living at home and doing relatively well. It was just in the past few months that she was diagnosed with lung cancer and that eventually was what took its toll on her. Her mind was as sharp as it had always been. She was lucky to still have her daughter Cynthia taking care of her until the very end. Her funeral truly was a "celebration" of her life, because she had a great, long one. Unlike the recent deaths of our loved ones, we don't feel like Essie was taken away from us too soon - it was just right - and we can take comfort in the fact that she is back with her husband Henry and living without pain. I was also honored to be a pallbearer for her, I'm so glad that Cynthia asked me.
Here she is holding Reese a little over 2 years ago:
Miss you and love you, Essie.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Me gusta Mexico
Oops...looks like I let another month slip by without any updates...life has been, well busy as usual.
The cruise was amazing - it was a wonderful week and we enjoyed every minute of our time without kids. By Thursday, I was missing them quite a bit though, so it was a long two days at sea at the end of the week. But...somehow I (we) still managed to suck it up and have a good time. :-)
We set sail from Los Angeles and the first full day was at sea...that was Super Bowl Sunday! Thank God we were able to watch from the ship - I made Scot call the cruise line and verify this right after the NFC Championship game. It was unfortunate that we couldn't watch with our Packer fan friends back home, but again, I somehow managed to enjoy it anyway. Especially the outcome! Wow - what an amazing game. GO PACKERS!
Our first sunset on the ship as we were departing L.A.
After that we had 3 days in a row of port calls - first Cabo San Lucas, then Mazatlan, then Puerto Vallarta. Cabo was beautiful - we got off the ship and hiked to a beach nearby. The boys did some swimming while Julie and I did some sunbathing (the ocean was FREEZING). We hung out there for a few hours, then took a water taxi back in and grabbed some chow and drinks at Senor Frog's, before heading back onto the ship.
Mazatlan was bittersweet. Julie went through the necessary hoops ahead of time to bring Di and Gardy's ashes on the plane and then on the ship. We decided to all head down to the beach area once we docked in Mazatlan so we could spread their ashes there. Di and Gardy loved Mazatlan - they had probably been there 20 times over the years, usually going twice each winter. They talked a lot about getting a winter place down there, though I think Diane started to resist this a bit once Ava came along - she had a hard time imagining letting those months slip by without seeing her baby! It's truly a shame that the couldn't spend more of their retirement years down there...so we thought it only fitting that they be laid to rest there for forever. We found this beautiful, serene spot for their new home. I really don't think there's any other place they'd rather be.
After that, we grabbed some lunch at a beach restaurant and then Scot and I spent the rest of the afternoon out at the El Cid pool - a fancy hotel with delectable pina coladas. Hit it right at the Two for One Happy Hour even ;-)
Day 4 was our stop in Puerto Vallarta - Scot and I booked a shore excursion in advance to go out on a catamaran with 2 stops for snorkeling/sea kayaking and waterfall hiking/beachtime. It was a great way to spend the day - we found some other Minnesotans to chat with, the weather was great, the food and drinks were free...we definitely got our money's worth out of this one.
And, as I said - the last 2 days we were at sea on our way back to L.A. Spent a lot of time reading poolside and enjoying the last few days of true freedom. We had a wonderful time and it was a great way to spend time with Scot's family. Two thumbs up!
And while the girls did technically survive while we were gone, their bangs did not. This was what we came home to, courtesy of the older one. This one also had my mom believing for 2 full days that Vicki did this and vice versa. Sigh.
The cruise was amazing - it was a wonderful week and we enjoyed every minute of our time without kids. By Thursday, I was missing them quite a bit though, so it was a long two days at sea at the end of the week. But...somehow I (we) still managed to suck it up and have a good time. :-)
We set sail from Los Angeles and the first full day was at sea...that was Super Bowl Sunday! Thank God we were able to watch from the ship - I made Scot call the cruise line and verify this right after the NFC Championship game. It was unfortunate that we couldn't watch with our Packer fan friends back home, but again, I somehow managed to enjoy it anyway. Especially the outcome! Wow - what an amazing game. GO PACKERS!
Our first sunset on the ship as we were departing L.A.
After that we had 3 days in a row of port calls - first Cabo San Lucas, then Mazatlan, then Puerto Vallarta. Cabo was beautiful - we got off the ship and hiked to a beach nearby. The boys did some swimming while Julie and I did some sunbathing (the ocean was FREEZING). We hung out there for a few hours, then took a water taxi back in and grabbed some chow and drinks at Senor Frog's, before heading back onto the ship.
Mazatlan was bittersweet. Julie went through the necessary hoops ahead of time to bring Di and Gardy's ashes on the plane and then on the ship. We decided to all head down to the beach area once we docked in Mazatlan so we could spread their ashes there. Di and Gardy loved Mazatlan - they had probably been there 20 times over the years, usually going twice each winter. They talked a lot about getting a winter place down there, though I think Diane started to resist this a bit once Ava came along - she had a hard time imagining letting those months slip by without seeing her baby! It's truly a shame that the couldn't spend more of their retirement years down there...so we thought it only fitting that they be laid to rest there for forever. We found this beautiful, serene spot for their new home. I really don't think there's any other place they'd rather be.
After that, we grabbed some lunch at a beach restaurant and then Scot and I spent the rest of the afternoon out at the El Cid pool - a fancy hotel with delectable pina coladas. Hit it right at the Two for One Happy Hour even ;-)
Day 4 was our stop in Puerto Vallarta - Scot and I booked a shore excursion in advance to go out on a catamaran with 2 stops for snorkeling/sea kayaking and waterfall hiking/beachtime. It was a great way to spend the day - we found some other Minnesotans to chat with, the weather was great, the food and drinks were free...we definitely got our money's worth out of this one.
And, as I said - the last 2 days we were at sea on our way back to L.A. Spent a lot of time reading poolside and enjoying the last few days of true freedom. We had a wonderful time and it was a great way to spend time with Scot's family. Two thumbs up!
And while the girls did technically survive while we were gone, their bangs did not. This was what we came home to, courtesy of the older one. This one also had my mom believing for 2 full days that Vicki did this and vice versa. Sigh.
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