Falling into the Better Late Than Never category, here are this year’s entries for the kids’ “first day of school” photos. For the 2009 edition, Matthew started 5th grade, and Melissa started 6th grade, aka, Middle School!
The babies, they are a-gettin’ big!
-ghp
Happy Birthday, Sweetie!
You’re the best big sister a little weasel like me could’ve ever gotten. Thanks for coming along & doing all the hard stuff first! ;^)
Love,
-BBB
19 years ago today (hence, it being the Yzerman Anniversary), God blessed me by making Dec 23, 1989 the best day in my post-baptismal life, when my best friend became my wife.
Much like everything else that God has so graciously given me, I don’t deserve Deb or her love for me, but I’m glad that I have them, and I thank God for them each and every day. God is good, and I need look no further than my own household for proof of that. I don’t want what I deserve; I’ll take what God has given me, thank you very much!
I love you, sweetie! Thanks for 19 years better than I could’ve ever dreamed of — I can’t wait to see what’s coming up; so long as I’ve got you by my side, I know we’ll be just fine.
-ghp
Another event that I’ve been remiss in documenting was a few weeks ago, when we agreed to dog-sit for one of Deb’s co-workers. The thing is, the dog to be sat was a 9 month old puppy. A 9 month old Boxer puppy. That already weighed 50-60 lbs!
Needless to say, this provided some interesting situations & interactions between our fur babies (who consider themselves to be big dogs trapped in little dog bodies — Holly in particular…), and Shelby, who is still a very exuberant baby girl growing into an already big (and still growing) body.
Here are some thumbnails of the festivities…
We eventually worked out a system where we rotated “free time” for the dogs, because it got to a bit much for them to all be out together all the time. This worked out quite nicely, as we’ve found that Hammie tends to be a bit over-protective of Holly in situations where other dogs are involved, which can be problematic, given Holly’s penchant for initiating roughhousing-type play.
All-in-all, it was a great experience. Shelby is a sweetheart — if I ever had to have a big dog, I could see getting a Boxer. That said, I still don’t want to get a big dog — I like my little doggies. Give me my BT fur babies, ’cause they are the very best you can get!
-ghp
I’m slack. I forgot to get photos documenting Holly Jean’s 1st birthday posted in a timely fashion. There’s not much I can say to mitigate that slackness, nor can I really add anything to enhance the cuteness that is Miss Holly Jean. So, I’ll leave you with one photo of what she looked like back when we got her, and several of what she looks like now, in her full-grown state.
She’s 14 pounds of Queen of the House sweetness, energy, snuggling, and (above all) kissing (like most BTs, she’ll lick you ’til the cows come home & then she’ll lick the cows! 
)!
-ghp
Even though it’s a “Hallmark Holiday”, today being Grandparents Day hit me a little bit harder than the norm today. Why?
Because it’s my first one without any grandparents.
Over the past 13.5 years, bigsis and I have lost all of our grandparents. First Papa, then Grandpa, then Grandma, and finally this past July, Nana. Bigsis and I were luckier than most – we lived a good chunk of our lives with all four grandparents as active forces in our lives. They were quite young when bigsis was born and just young-ish when I was born. I was 28 when Papa died (he was 83), and I’m 40 now. Discretion prevents me from saying what bigsis was/is.
My point is, we have been tremendously blessed. My grandparents were all good people. I didn’t always appreciate them properly, but I always loved them. I didn’t always agree with what they did or how they treated my parents, but I always respected them (something for which I give full credit to my parents, for they always made sure that we children knew to love, honor, and respect our grandparents, no matter what!).
My grandparents were, taken as couples, very different personalities. One trait and behavior they had in common, however, was this — they always made me feel safe and loved. Grandma & Grandpa were the more stereotypically “traditional” grandparents – doting, baking, cooking, playing games. For a small child, time spent with them was Nirvana, and they had the ability to make each and every one of their six grandchildren feel like he or she was the favorite. (even though I know I really was! 
) Nana & Papa were more “modern” and had more of an “edge” to them. But, even though they might not have been as cuddly (well, Nana anyway – Papa was as cuddly as you could get!) in the traditional sense, they were every bit as loving and caring. I didn’t begin to appreciate them until I got older. That’s ok, I think, because sometimes time brings with it perspective, and perspective, wisdom.
I’m also thankful for the blessing of my grandparents because I see them in my parents. Without my grandparents I wouldn’t have my parents. As my parents formed & raised me & bigsis, so were they formed & raised by my grandparents. I am (proudly) a mama’s boy, just as she is (proudly) a daddy’s girl. And I know my Papa loved and was proud of me. I feel a very strong connection to both my grandfathers. I spent a lot of time with them, particularly Grandpa when I was in grades K-2.
I’m not blind to their failings, as I’m blind to neither my own, nor my parents’. All three generations share many of the same, and I can safely say that I think they’ve been passed down to the next generation in my kids (with a few quirks thrown in from my wife’s side of the family…). But that’s ok, that’s how it works…
Because faith is another thing that gets passed along in our family. My parents got taken to church. Bigsis and I got taken to church, and we’ve both made sure that our kids are getting properly brought up in the One True Faith.
Just one more thing to be thankful for on this Grandparents Day…
-ghp
I’ve just started getting this same request from my own little redheaded daughter. And she’s showing some amazing rationalization abilities in trying to justify my spending the money on getting her a laptop that, at this point in time (with her being a 5th grader and all…), she doesn’t need. She has all the computer access she needs using the family computer. She doesn’t like hearing that, of course, but it’s still the truth.
Anyway, I’m glad this strip gave me a reason to blog. Keeping up with my various/main vocations this week has been busy & rather trying – what with school starting back up for the kids and at work, teaching a class, and all the stuff that goes along with all of that. I feel more wrung out than usual…
-ghp
Phase one of ‘Reunion Day’ is almost complete. The family reunion has been quite pleasant. The weather is absolutely gorgeous, and the park is very nice – big enough to spread out, but not so big as to be spread out all over hell’s half acre. And, I must admit, that after almost 20 years I’ve grown rather fond of my wife’s side of the family (subject, of course to my usual anti-social caveats…). They’re good people, and there are far worse ways to spend a few hours.
Which reminds me about what’s coming up in phase 2 of ‘Reunion Day’ — the 20th reunion of Milford High’s Class of 1988… Freshmen dorks who didn’t even go to my school! w00t!!
-ghp
I can’t recall the last time I went over a week without posting an entry. Sometimes it gets away from you. I guess I have a decent excuse this time, in that it was last Monday evening that I got the call that my last surviving grandparent had died. As a result, the clan was summoned for a long weekend of funeral related activities, that for the Territorial Nuclear Family meant a Thursday – Sunday road-trip to the ancestral homeland in Metro Detroit.
I’m not going to go into a long, drawn-out, blow-by-blow recap, if only because it’ll bore y’all (’cause other folks’ families are never quite as entertaining as you might thing, even when they are dysfunctional…) & annoy me (’cause it was bad enough that I had to live through parts of it once…). Suffice it to say that there were good parts (it’s always good to meet up with bigsis!), and bad parts (extended family members & social situations that were frankly uncomfortable, physical and mental/emotional malaise, and a funeral service/eulogy that was stunningly stereotypically lightweight in its lack of theology — with the two “hymns” having been In the Garden & The Old Rugged Cross — and thus not terribly comforting as a result…). Layer all that on to the fact that I just don’t like to travel all that much, and you can easily see that it wasn’t the greatest of times for me.
But, it had to be done, and I was more than happy to have been there for my beloved mother. While my grandmother was, to put it lightly, the most difficult of the four grands, it still didn’t make it any easier for my mom to deal with the inevitable endgame. Over the past 14 years my parents have had to bury all four of their parents, including three in the past five, IIRC. Fold into that all of the traveling that they’ve had to do for medical appointments, home care, emergency-room trips, nursing home transitions, nursing home visits, etc… — well, this past decade-and-a-half has aged my parents well beyond the mere passage of time. I pray that the Lord now blesses them with a rejuvenation & removal of stress, that they might enjoy life on their own terms, without demands placed on them by other folks, really for the first time in their 51 years of marriage.
Anyhoo, that was the past week for me. This week, it’s catching up at work & getting ready for another trip to MI this weekend, albeit a planned one for the little woman’s family reunion and for her 20th high school reunion (can’t say I understand why she wants to go, but she does & I’ll do whatever I can to support her — ’cause if she’s odd enough to love me, then she obviously needs all the support she can get! ).
-ghp
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