All Smiles

Had a great time at the birthday party for Eli and Scout.  Also had a great view of the air show on Saturday.  Here's some pics:

The Little Things

Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.  

~Robert Brault

Fun at the Fort

Just an update about some pics I took the other day of the boys playing on their new fort.  It's pretty obvious they like it.  The slideshow is up on the right.

What a blessing it's been to be able to spend time with them at home during the summer.  

Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth.  Psalm 127:4

FINALLY SUMMER!!!

It's finally here.  Summer.  A summer with an actual summer to it.  No graduate classes.  No trips out of the country.  Just summer.  

And to kick things off, we headed up to Chattanooga for a couple of days to visit the Tennessee Aquarium and Creative Discovery Museum.  There are new pictures up in the Picasa gallery.  (The slide show has been updated too.)  The boys enjoyed the trip, especially Rock City.  Those pictures should be up soon.

Mimi and Poppy are headed back to PA on Monday.  It's gonna be sad to see them go; the boys won't know how to act with just Mommy and Daddy around.

Now that school is out I'm hoping to catch up on some Daddy time with the boys.  Maybe they won't get sick of me.  :-)

One More Week

One more week of school before Spring Break.  Our girls basketball team won the state championship last Friday, and this past week was the graduation exam all week long.  So the last two weeks or so have been basically turned upside down at school.  It's been difficult to get any momentum going at all, for the students and the teachers.  The concert band has State Festival this Friday at Gadsden City High School, and hopefully we can get back to our routine before we go so the band doesn't feel so out of sync on Friday.

We're leaving Saturday for Pennsylvania.  We'll be up there for a week, then I'm flying home on the next Saturday.  Emily and the boys are staying up there and coming home on April 14th, with Mimi coming with them.  Poppi will come down for the boys' birthday and then they will head home.  It's going to be tough not seeing the boys for almost a month, and even harder not seeing Emily.  I'm not sure if we've ever been apart for that long.  It will go by fast, and thankfully she won't be at home alone while things get busy for me.

In the two weeks following Spring Break, the Indoor Drumline has two major competitions, a barbecue fundraiser at the school, a rehearsal with the UNA Percussion Instructor for their upcoming Percussion Ensemble concert, the UNA Wind Ensemble is performing at school, in addition to the normal stuff going on.  It's going to be busy, so the time that Emily and the boys are away will definitely go buy fast.  Then once they're back I'll be in Dayton for four days one week then Williamsburg, VA the next week.  My calendar looks like a coloring book with almost everyday colored on.  

There's a new slide show up, too.  Just some pics I took of the boys on Saturday morning during breakfast.  Emily usually takes a long run on Saturday's and it's my time with the boys, and I enjoy every minute of it.  Getting up and fixing their breakfast, getting them out of their cribs, watching them stuff their faces with bananas, everything.  One day the last thing they'll want to is to sit down with Daddy and eat breakfast, so I'm taking advantage of it while I can.

Drumline Competition Today

The drumline began the 2008 competitive season today at Brooks High School in Killen, AL.  The day went well; we scored a 75 and finished first out of two in our class with only the first movement of the show on the floor.  It was a good day, and they did it without me there.

About 20 minutes after I arrived at the band room Emily called and told me the boys were extremely sick.  They both had slept for less than an hour for their nap, Benjamin had thrown up and Noah was about to as well.  After several frantic phone calls and calling in a few favors I got things squared away so I could come back home.  I walk in the door to see those little stinkers running around and dancing in the living room!  But I decided to stay in case their new found energy was short lived and things got bad again.  

By about 6pm they were feeling pretty lousy and you could see it in their eyes and both had a bit of a fever.  So we gave them some Tylenol to help them sleep and put them down about 6:15.  Both have cried out off and on since then, Noah more than Benjamin, but so far have managed to go back to sleep.  

The drumline is an amazing group of kids, along with their parents and my staff that were there with them.  I can't describe the nervousness and the out-of-place feelings I had while I was here and the drumline was at a competition.  Of course they did fine, as I told them they would, but it was still strange not being there.  I'm thankful that I have the support of such great parents to see things through like that.  

Normalcy

For those that know me, you know it's been a difficult three weeks.  My maternal grandmother passed away on January 9, and my paternal grandfather passed away on January 22.  They were buried two weeks apart to the day, and services were held in the same funeral home.  Talk about difficult.

What I think was most difficult for me, besides the obvious loss of two grandparents in two weeks, was the fact that I have no more grandparents.  My grandfather, who I was closest to, was my last grandparent.  He died at the age of 90, and I realized that someone who has been there for the first 30 years of your life tends to leave a mark when they're gone.  It's not that I never expected to him to live forever, but then again I never thought about him dying much either.  He had always been there.  And I had always been the "favorite" grandson, since I was the only grandson.  :-)

But through all of this, my family, both physical and spiritual have been a tremendous source of support.  To watch my boys running around reminds me of my responsibility I have to them, especially at the first steps of the next generation.  While before I could still claim to be the grandchild, my parents are now the grandparents, and Emily and I are now the parents (on my side anyway).  

It gave me great joy and comfort to see Noah and Benjamin at Grandad's bed side during these last few weeks.  He remained quite lucid until the very end, and as long as he was able still made it a point to shake my hand, play with the boys, and remind me of the fact that he could still touch his index and pinky fingers together, while I still couldn't.   The twins won't remember Grandad, but I am extremely grateful that he knew them, and how proud he was of four generations of Anderson men.

And now that it's all over, Emily and I both long for a sense of Normalcy.  Just to be able to get back in the normal routine would actually be a breath of fresh air.  No hasty trips to the Shoals (at least for these reasons), no worrying about toddlers disturbing hospitals, nursing homes, and funeral homes, and no more waking up every morning thinking that today might be the day that we got the call that someone has finally passed.  At least, we pray that this "season" has passed for a while.

"For what is your life?  It is even a vapor, that appears for a little time and then vanishes away."  James 4:14