Also...

I failed to mention that today, November 15th, was my former father-in-law, Chuck, Sr.'s birthday. Had he lived, he would have been 82 today and he would have rocked it. He passed of multiple myloma in June of 2004. I know he would have gotten such a kick out of knowing Nicholas and would be so proud of the young man Patrick is becoming. He was displaced from his family while visiting his family's summer home in Latvia (from Germany) at age 12 when the Nazis invaded Russia. He escaped a firing squad, lived off roots, berries and bugs and traveled back to Germany only to be put in a displaced persons work camp. Later he was reunited with his family and sponsored by a Lutheran orphanage to come to America where he joined the Air Force and worked his way up to Chief Master Sargent and served at the Pentagon as head of all of the dental facilities of the Air Force bases. He was a truly amazing individual, opinionated and extremely charming and I miss him.

Today

I have been so reluctant to start blogging again, due to the chaos that was our move last summer. We have misplaced our camera charger, therefore I do not have any pictures of the boy's birthdays to share (yet), our time living at the hotel in downtown Chicago, our time moving into our house here in Park Ridge and all of the MANY renovations that have taken place. We will find that charger at some point and I will backlog our summer because the main point of this blog is to keep a record of our family. So many things that have happened over the past 4.5 years since I started this blog are so fun to look back on and remember (for us). Anyways, today I was packing up all of the Thomas the Train stuff that Nicholas has never been interested in and it brought me to tears remembering how Patrick and I used to build tracks and play trains when he was Nicholas's age and how that time is past and will never be again (Although, Patrick is such a well natured child he probably would play trains with me if I asked, but you get my point). Raising children day after day sometimes seems so long, but when I thought about those trains today, it only seemed liked yesterday and in reality it was 5 years ago. I asked Patrick when he got home from school if he remembered playing trains, and did I play with him enough. He warmed my heart by saying "You played trains with me all of the time, Mom. We had fun.". While I can't get those moments back, I am proud of the memories they provide, and I hope to be on this earth long enough to continue to create more...which brings me to another thought from today of a dear friend of ours from Lake Cities, Rich P., a true man of God, a wonderful husband, father and friend. Rich is one of the healthiest people I know, and yet he was stricken last year with kidney cancer. He has been through treatment and has been going for scans every 3 months. Now nodules appear to be growing in his lungs. I am reminded that "today" is all God ever promised us, it is a gift from Him, and we cannot expect anything more than His will. I want to remind myself and others to cherish every moment with loved ones, never lash out in anger, but be kind as Jesus would have wanted and always be thankful.