Sunday, August 3rd

It's been forever since I've written, so much has happened. Olivia finished her freshman year, made the varsity basketball team, is learning how to drive, finished in the top 10 of her class, etc. Luke started a new school, got placed in the gifted program, has learned some awesome songs on the guitar, Sweet Child O Mine and Enter Sandman as examples, etc. etc. Claire got all A's in 7th grade, and played great on her elite basketball team. We got to travel to Atlanta where she won one of the games for the team by making a bucket and 4 of 4 free throws in the last minute to win by 3. She also won a grant to FGCU based on her excellent science fair project.

As a family, we took an amazing trip to Seattle, and the kids all learned to ski. It was beautiful, I think we all really enjoyed it out there.

Going forward I am going to try to do a daily post, short, sweet and to the point. I hope to still add pictures as well, but I want to document our life together going forward.


So, for August 3rd:

My Favorite Moment of the Day: The family went to the beach and I went running, first time running on the beach in years. It was hot, but fun, and running along the water looking out to the horizon is just awesome. Running in front of people never hurts the motivation either, so that was good. But the best part was seeing the rest of the family waving to me as I arrived back at our spot on the beach...it's always nice when people are excited to see you!

Thing that Made me Laugh Today:  Claire and Kristin were walking upstairs, and Claire told a joke. Kristin kind of fake laughed, on purpose, then Claire fake laughed, then they both started really laughing. That made me laugh as I heard the two of them from downstairs.

Thing that Made me Think Today: I was thinking about family, we went to my parent's house for dessert tonight (awesome blueberry pie), and how there's always something new for the family to deal with. Everyone has their things going on, good stuff, bad stuff, and trying to figure out how to handle all of it, in the best way possible. I thought how important it is to be there for each other, whether it is to celebrate little things (fixing a ceiling fan), celebrate big things (meeting someone new after being by yourself for a long time), and support in tough times (being on your own for the first time in a long time, what to do with a family member who is now alone). I mentioned to my Dad and Kristin a few weeks ago, it kind of bums me out that there are so few people you can truly count on. You want to be someone people can rely on, good times and tough times. I thought I need to be that person, even if the person you are giving yourself to isn't returning the favor.