My birthday

One day after Sara turned 8 months old, I turned 36.  Years.

I have such great kids.  They made it a really special birthday for me.

Mary made me a multi-media picture of us, complete with string, hole punches, and staples.  Adorable!  (That girl is turning into a crafting/art project maniac.)  And she put it in a special envelope!  I love that David and Mary can do art projects completely on their own!  (It makes them way more meaningful.)

David wrote me a chant about me being great and awesome and loved.  He attached a page of 3-D pictures he had drawn.  Very cool.  Love that kid.

David posed for the picture of my "big gift"--a Bose speaker I can stream NPR (and other necessary things like The Nutcracker) onto from my phone.

(You notice my sweet dream baby in the back ground?)

I got lots of birthday cuddles with my kids.  The following is a series of pictures entitled "The Strand of Hair."

To celebrate my birthday, I got not one, but TWO, super fancy cakes.

We shared the cakes with my niece and nephews.  What a great birthday!

And the very best part was my three amazing children.  I love each of them more deeply every day.

Chicago

On our way to Ohio from Wisconsin, back when we closed on our house in July, we stopped in Chicago.

We visited the Hancock Tower.  (We'd been there before.  But it was a long time ago, so David and especially Mary did not remember.)  It's pretty neat feeling like you're on top of the world.

We have also been to the Willis-formerly-known-as-Sear Tower.  It's taller, as you probably know, and the Skydeck is pretty cool.  But you can't beat the location of the Hancock Tower--right next door to the Lego and the American Girl stores!

The next morning we visited the Field Museum.  (Pictures are M.I.A.)  We said hi to Sue the T-Rex and visited a number of the exhibits.  David and Mary especially enjoyed the precious gems on display.  We have been dragging them to museums for years (mostly for our sanity than for their enjoyment), but now David and Mary are getting old enough to really "get" museums.  It's great.

After the Field, we climbed back into our cars and drove to Cincinnati to begin a new chapter.

Wolf!

David has been working really hard to earn his Wolf before Greg deploys.  And he did it!!

The December Pack Meeting was special for our family.

Greg and David were invited to perform the flag ceremony (or posting of the colors or whatever it's called, sorry).  They made a great team. It was tender to see my boys together in their uniforms.

David received his Wolf badge!  And his first arrow!  He has also earned several belt loops in the last few months (including the Computer and Video Games.)

I am very proud of him.  (And I love Cub Scouts!  Who would have guessed??  Not me.)


Then Greg proved that he has earned his PowerPoint belt loop.  (Ha ha!  That's his joke, by the way.)

He talked to the boys about citizenship--about how they can contribute positively to the different communities and groups they belong to.  He showed pictures of how he contributes to his Air Force community.  He did a great job!  (I wouldn't say that if he didn't.)

I'm very  appreciative of David's den leaders.  They have been super supportive of our efforts to help David earn his Wolf so quickly.  And I am so grateful that they made this Pack Meeting extra special for our family.  Greg won't be at another Pack Meeting in a long time.

Which leads me to this frightening thought...

PINE WOOD DERBY minus DAD equals AHHHHHH!

But for now I'll just be proud and happy of that wolf pin.

Campus

Greg's diploma is framed.

Sadly, that's all the formality he's getting for his PhD.  There was no commencement in August.  So we planned to go back to Wisconsin for graduation in May (and swing up to Door County).  But with his deployment, he'll be on the other side of the world in May.  So then we decided we would go to graduation in December, which is the Sunday before Christmas.  But now he has Evasion and Conduct After Capture training in San Antonio next week.  Darn.  Greg doesn't get to walk and be hooded.  (And I don't get to see my friends.)  But he has a diploma!  And spot on the wall in his office!  (Not that he'll be in his office for much of the next year...)

It would have been nice to go back to campus.

But we did go to campus for a final family outing right before we moved.  It was very hot and humid that day in Madison.  Today in Ohio there is snow on the ground and school was cancelled.  It was an entirely different season back when we moved.  It's been months...over four months.  That's like a third of a year.  Why do I feel like we're still brand new?

Anyway, here is a walk down memory lane ... pictures from campus that I would swear were taken just a few weeks ago ... but it was the end of July ... back when Sara wasn't quite seven months old and David just  barely eight and Mary's sixth birthday was ages away still.

Time marches on.