June 2018-Summertime and the Living is Easy...

Marching in Birmingham Gay Pride Day Parade

Willow at Sweet Frogs



Willow, Hedgey, Paci and Phone



Sun and Sand



Awesome Dad

Awesome Pirate Cruise!

Beautiful Beach Girls

Jimbo's Regular



Beautiful Girl (and Hedgey!)



Amazingly Talented Girl!



Sisters on Trip with Parents

June was a time for projects at home, a visit with Mother and an Awesome Panama City Beach Trip! I finally unpacked most of the boxes I’ve had in the basement for almost 3 years since I emptied my UAB office in September 2015. Quite a chore since I often got side-tracked sifting through things associated with graduate school and 15 years at Samford University School of Nursing as well as 25 years at UAB Hospital! I enjoyed marching in the annual Pride Parade despite the rain! I’m glad to be part of an “inclusive community of grace”. I haven’t spent as much time with Lyla and Willow as I do during the school year since Brock is off and they have had some family trips. But I have had several wonderful days with the girls. During my wonderful week at the beach with the Rotter Family I read two books: “We were the Lucky Ones” about a family of survivors of the Holocaust & John Gresham book “Sycamore Row. I had an amazing time with the Rotters in Panama City. Angela and Brock were so easy to be with and I had a lot of time with the girls and with Angela and Brock as well as some relaxing time to myself. Brock is a great cook. And Angela is such a good planner and sweet daughter. I had a good visit with my mother in Mobile but it’s clear she is not as engaged in the world anymore. She is 98. I’m not going to do the details for the month of June as I have done for the previous months of the year. I’m on vacation! And as write this on August 7, the summer is almost over. At least so far there have been no hurricanes this summer. And the girls go back to school August 13. And I still need to update blog with July and August….maybe later!

May 2018...Another school year ends and Summer Begins!

Mother and Baby



Future (and present) Soccer Player!

Resting with lunchbox

Morning in Bed



Dinner Visit with Browns at PF Chang's

Mother's Day Visit

Sweet Mother's Day Gift

Annie coming to visit Granny!

Sweet Willow and Hedgie

The "Big 4" Milly, Clara, Johann and Willow

Awesome Soccer Player!

Ballet recital support group!

3 Beautiful Girls

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  Ballerina!!

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Auburn Fan!

Willow's teachers-Last Day School



Morning television Time
 
Angela took Willow to Zoo with her class. She mentioned the 4 children, Willow, Clara, Johann and Milly who spent 5 days a week with each other were so sweet and stuck together…often checking to be sure each of them were together. Willow would ask: “Where’s my Johann!!?” Lyla wore her Auburn jersey on “Jersey Day” at school. I have started college funds for the girls. I’m sure it won’t be enough but it will be here before we know it! Since both of their parents went to Auburn, maybe they will go there too?  We had the usual fun days at the park after school. One day Willow had “Dinosaur Day” at school. I had a hard time getting her to wear a dinosaur shirt to school but she did wear a cute outfit that was actually pajamas! On Mother’s Day Angela, Brock and the girls and Annie the dog came to our house and brought lunch. It was a great visit! Willow has to use sunblock at school due to her sensitivity to the sun. Willow and Lyla are so special in their unique ways. Brock has commented one of them looks like she escaped from a Kibbutz and the other from a Lutheran Day Care! Lyla always gets beautiful sun tans. Different is good and sometimes decreases competition between siblings. They are 4 years apart but will be 5 years apart in school due to September and October birthdays. It’s hard to believe the school year is ending. We went to the year-end music concert at the (relatively) new HMS Gym and ate at the neighborhood La Paz afterwards. As I write this in August, a new Piggly Wiggly is opening in walking distance from their house. And now there is a gas station there too. Things are changing and trips “down the mountain” to Publix won’t be necessary.

On the last day of school Lyla I met Angela and the girls at the park after the annual school Beach Party and took Lyla home with me to spend the night. Since there were no Saturday am events we watched TV until late and slept late and played board games etc. Lyla was a sweet girl! Because I was going to Mobile an Lyla was going to visit Nitza in Florida I would not see her for two weeks! But I did get to have some time with sweet Willow while she was gone! At the end of May I met my childhood friend Marilyn Evans at the new Equal Justice Initiative Museum in Montgomery. She had painted the Maya Angelou quote “History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again”. The museum was very moving and as I am writing this I am wearing a t-shirt I bought there with another meaningful quote by the founder of the museum, Bryan Stevenson: “Each of is more than the worse thing we’ve ever done.” Something to remember for ourselves and others. The month of May ended while I was in Montgomery and I headed to Mobile for a visit with my 98-year-old Mother. It’s Summertime!

Words Marilyn Heard painted on wall of  Montgomery Equal Justice Initiative Museum

April 2018-How Very Special to Be

Boat time

Botanical Garden

Driving at Park

Famous person Day at School
Lyla as Michelle Obama

Soccer Player!!

Mother, Daughter & Hedgie

Beautiful Girl

With Friend at Soccer Game

Birthday visit-Mother 98th and Darlene 66th. Angela and my Cousins Dianna and Carol (Nee Compton)

Bunny Basket

Lyla the Lawn mower 

Granny's 66th Birthday

Boots and Hedgey (lucky Hedgehog!)



Sisters



Cooking with Dad
 



Water Break Time




Besides playing hide and seek with Lyla, we now hide plastic eggs in the house. She hides eggs as well as she hides herself. It is fun to play with her. And such a joy that she seems to enjoy it as well. Lyla dressed as Michelle Obama as her favorite famous person at school. Maybe Lyla will grow up to be a lawyer too! On several days I picked up Lyla at school and took her to piano before taking her home to get ready for soccer. Willow has figured out when I show up it very often means her parents are going to leave her so I do my best to comfort her and do whatever she wants me to do…within appropriate limitations. It is so special to read books to her and hold her before putting her to bed. This month was routine but still special since I got to spend a lot of time with Willow and Lyla. Angela also made a trip to Mobile with me for Great Grandmother’s (and my) birthdays. It was a short but sweet visit. I had an appointment with a new GI surgeon at UAB who told me he did not recommend elective surgery for me. I was very glad to hear that! I am optimistic I can stay healthy at least until Angela finishes her Nurse Practitioner program at UAB!  We went out for pizza at Area 41 for my birthday celebration. Life is a celebration. Angela’s favorite line from Charlotte’s Web, “How very special are we for just a moment to be” is so appropriate and touching. I am glad to have so many moments with Lyla and Willow…and of course, Brock and Angela as well!

March 2018- A Busy Time!!

Madi in costume

Daddy's Armful of Love

Lyla at Doodles-Kristina's Favorite Place

Snack time at Park

Jazz Costume

Ballet Costume

Willow at McWayne Center with her class

Lyla's Soccer Team Practice

Reading New Book "Thelma the Unicorn" with Daddy



Hedgey-Willow's favorite

Sisters

Willow holding her most special stuffed animal...a precious hedgehog named "Hedgie"

Sisters on bikes

Spring Break trip to McWayne with Granny

 Lyla has piano, ballet and jazz lessons and Girl Scouts, soccer practice and games and birthday parties and, of course, both girls have school and as many after-school times as possible at the Mt. Laurel park. And this month included several illnesses. I had an emergency room visit and Angela had a “GI bug” and took several rare sick days off. Angela is continuing to work on courses to become a Nurse Practioner. She stays very busy and I’m glad I am able to help her with the girls. Willow had a “weepy eye” necessitating a doctor visit and had several stay-at-home days due to a fever. I took Willow on class field trip to McWayne Center, It was a very sweet time to see her with her friends. She has several special friends who are with her all five days at school. Due to Lyla’s soccer I had several Thursday nights to put sweet Willow to bed after reading many Baby Bug Books! One night as I started to sing “bed time songs” she told me not to sing to her. I realized she had matured enough to recognize I couldn’t sing well and “song-time” was over. One afternoon I took Willow home from the park to change her diaper and returned to the park. As I write this Willow is close to being toilet trained and that era will end too!  Lyla loves to play Hide and Seek with me and creates some awesome hiding places in the house! She is growing up so quickly… and so sweet, smart and beautiful! I, along with Raffi (aka “Saba Donuts”) and his wife Granna, went to Grandparent’s Day at HMS. At the end of the month the Rotter family went to “March for our Lives” to protest school shootings in Florida. During Spring Break I had a long and wonderful day with Lyla at McWayne Center. It is always a joy to see Lyla play well with children she doesn’t know. She’s not shy asking children to play with her! I went to visit my Mother in Mobile for Easter at the end of the month.