This was a long time ago, the girls are 14 this year. I am the very proud grandpa.
Gratitude #83 - Sweet Biddies!
11 years ago
Friday, January 2, 2009
emily and brianna
This was a long time ago, the girls are 14 this year. I am the very proud grandpa.
friday
I did not listen carefully.
Emily has been with us for a few wonderful days. She has grown up so well, I am so proud of her, and treasure all of that special time.
I thought she was going to be with us nights until the first of next week, when she would fly back to portland. But just now her dad came to get her (we are on good terms with her dad, btw), and she is gone. Just like that.
While I did not understand the schedule, I took time to make us a breakfast of fresh fried potatoes and eggs with cheese, washed down with a glass of my famous (in the family at least) fruit smoothie.
Now she is gone.
Before she left she hugged me and told me that I had always been her father figure. That is a challenge I have taken very seriously for these short years. Her dad has not always been around.
I remember going to San Josen California to see Linda, Duane and Emily. Em was a couple of weeks old. I held her and looked at her tiny hands, each hand smaller than one of my thumbs, and I was in total, absolute awe. It was that grandpa kind of thing, where the old guy looks at the new generation and swoons. I never have gotten over seeing her for the first time.
Before her first birthday she moved with her mom to Idaho, living half an hour away. Most weekends she spent with us, and it was wonderful to have a little one around the house again. She went to church with us, and one week I was to play my trumpet for the service. Em and Miriam were on the back row (Em was still working on “church manners”). As I stood to play, with my trumpet in my hand, just before the accompaniment began, I heard this tiny voice. It was tiny, but in the silence of church it was loud: “PAPA!”
I smiled out loud, the congregation twittered approval and I played with energy.
That child has bored deep into my soul and I have loved her special. I have made a point in my life of never loving one child more than another, but the family has agreed that while I do not love Emily more than Jessica or Brianna or Amy, it is a special kind of love, nurtured by our being so close
Truthfully she has spent more time with us than she has with her father. I am not here to throw stones, that is just how it worked.
As I watch her grow (she is about 5’ 8” now) and get older and wiser (at 14, she is wise beyond her age) I am so proud of her.
But, lest you think I can only talk about Emily, I dare you to ask about Amy or Brianna or Jessica! They are all amazing women, these women and their mothers and aunts. I am honored to be the old guy.
Emily has been with us for a few wonderful days. She has grown up so well, I am so proud of her, and treasure all of that special time.
I thought she was going to be with us nights until the first of next week, when she would fly back to portland. But just now her dad came to get her (we are on good terms with her dad, btw), and she is gone. Just like that.
While I did not understand the schedule, I took time to make us a breakfast of fresh fried potatoes and eggs with cheese, washed down with a glass of my famous (in the family at least) fruit smoothie.
Now she is gone.
Before she left she hugged me and told me that I had always been her father figure. That is a challenge I have taken very seriously for these short years. Her dad has not always been around.
I remember going to San Josen California to see Linda, Duane and Emily. Em was a couple of weeks old. I held her and looked at her tiny hands, each hand smaller than one of my thumbs, and I was in total, absolute awe. It was that grandpa kind of thing, where the old guy looks at the new generation and swoons. I never have gotten over seeing her for the first time.
Before her first birthday she moved with her mom to Idaho, living half an hour away. Most weekends she spent with us, and it was wonderful to have a little one around the house again. She went to church with us, and one week I was to play my trumpet for the service. Em and Miriam were on the back row (Em was still working on “church manners”). As I stood to play, with my trumpet in my hand, just before the accompaniment began, I heard this tiny voice. It was tiny, but in the silence of church it was loud: “PAPA!”
I smiled out loud, the congregation twittered approval and I played with energy.
That child has bored deep into my soul and I have loved her special. I have made a point in my life of never loving one child more than another, but the family has agreed that while I do not love Emily more than Jessica or Brianna or Amy, it is a special kind of love, nurtured by our being so close
Truthfully she has spent more time with us than she has with her father. I am not here to throw stones, that is just how it worked.
As I watch her grow (she is about 5’ 8” now) and get older and wiser (at 14, she is wise beyond her age) I am so proud of her.
But, lest you think I can only talk about Emily, I dare you to ask about Amy or Brianna or Jessica! They are all amazing women, these women and their mothers and aunts. I am honored to be the old guy.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
two thousand nine?
Happy New Year every one.
May this year be a good one. May we once more remember that what we are is not what we have as possessions, but what we have as family and friends, and how we love and cherish them.
Even during tough times, good things happen.
Let’s look for the good around us.
May this year be a good one. May we once more remember that what we are is not what we have as possessions, but what we have as family and friends, and how we love and cherish them.
Even during tough times, good things happen.
Let’s look for the good around us.
proud papa
Christmas day I was watching dinner being prepared.
We were to have about 25 people for dinner, there was a lot of food that had to be prepared. The daughters had volunteered to cook (had they not volunteered the food would have been in short supply). While they worked, I was the designated watcher!
Our oldest daughter's house, where we were staying, has a good big kitchen, with a 3 ½ by 8 foot island in the center. In actuality it is the social center of the whole house.
My daughters were all working. There was not room for me, or I did not look for room maybe. Miriam was putting a puzzle together in another room. I watched in pleased amazement.
The four girls work together, they laughed, they teased about who was in charge of what, the cooked and had such a great time. Each of them are avery fine cooks in their own rights, but their styles vary quite a bit, but here they worked in wonderful harmony.
I was so proud to be their father. Later in the preparation, Mandy, who is our oldest grandson’s new wife (OK, they have been married a year and a half) joined in and the 5 of them worked as a wonderful crew.
Of course the dinner was wonderful, but what will always be in my mind and memory is the picture of the love and cooperation I was seeing.
We were to have about 25 people for dinner, there was a lot of food that had to be prepared. The daughters had volunteered to cook (had they not volunteered the food would have been in short supply). While they worked, I was the designated watcher!
Our oldest daughter's house, where we were staying, has a good big kitchen, with a 3 ½ by 8 foot island in the center. In actuality it is the social center of the whole house.
My daughters were all working. There was not room for me, or I did not look for room maybe. Miriam was putting a puzzle together in another room. I watched in pleased amazement.
The four girls work together, they laughed, they teased about who was in charge of what, the cooked and had such a great time. Each of them are avery fine cooks in their own rights, but their styles vary quite a bit, but here they worked in wonderful harmony.
I was so proud to be their father. Later in the preparation, Mandy, who is our oldest grandson’s new wife (OK, they have been married a year and a half) joined in and the 5 of them worked as a wonderful crew.
Of course the dinner was wonderful, but what will always be in my mind and memory is the picture of the love and cooperation I was seeing.
snow
When we got to Walla Walla, there was abut 12 inches of snow. Christmas day it snowed another 4 inches.
Chains were required to go any place serious. We even dug out the paper delivery person, who got stuck with front wheel drive AND chains.
Then that wonderful NW thing called a Chinook arrived (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinook_winds), and most of the snow was gone in a day or two.
Snow is fun to a point, but Walla Walla does not get a lot of snow so there is little equipment for removal and a really low snow removal budget.
When we got back to Idaho there was snow on the ground, but not as much and it was going, though not because of a thawing wind.
Chains were required to go any place serious. We even dug out the paper delivery person, who got stuck with front wheel drive AND chains.
Then that wonderful NW thing called a Chinook arrived (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinook_winds), and most of the snow was gone in a day or two.
Snow is fun to a point, but Walla Walla does not get a lot of snow so there is little equipment for removal and a really low snow removal budget.
When we got back to Idaho there was snow on the ground, but not as much and it was going, though not because of a thawing wind.
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