Monthly Archives: October 2017

Family

Gardening Dad

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I have never had a green thumb…never. But the past few years, I have started to skew more green.

Last year, I completely dug up the area by the mailbox and put in fresh dirt and mulch. We (E and I) put in some flowers and had beautiful color from summer into late fall.

This year, I decided to try my hand at gardening. I’ve never had so much as a leaf come out of any of my previous attempts at lettuce, tomatoes, radishes, carrots…all fails and HARD fails at that.

With the advice of a good buddy, I decided to give tomatoes a try again this year. And FINALLY something worked. My tomatoes looked wonky at first but, man, have they been producing. We are probably going to wind up with about 100 cherry tomatoes total off of a $2 pack of seed. It’s been so cool to see what water and dirt creates. I’m excited to try more next year. The coolest thing of this has been how much my daughter loves pulling them off when they get “red enough”. She even reminds me to water them now!

We also have some lettuce that I’m hoping fully comes out before the first frost hits.

Funny part of this story – I don’t really like tomatoes.

The Godparents

Lincoln’s Godmother

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First off, who would invite 50+ people to their house for a birthday party for a kid that wasn’t their own? And the majority of the kids are 3 and under and into EVERYTHING. If Becky asked me this question in 20 years, I’d just start laughing.

Anyway….

We chose Mrs. Andrea Maguire to be the godmother to our son, to help us guide him in the teachings of Christ. And it may be the best and most immediately validated decision we have made in a long time.

She has been a Godsend to us on more than a few occasions recently. We met her through her insanely talented son Andrew who was in Becky’s theater productions for all 4 of his high school years. He had starring roles pretty much from the time he was a sophomore. The kid just has IT. Not to mention, our daughter fell “in love” with him. I can still hear her during Pippin when he fell down (on purpose) on stage. “Oh no, Andrew fall down”.

Anyway, I first met Andrea on an IHS theater trip to Chicago. A bunch of high school kids, some parent chaperones, a long bus trip … Good bonding time. I could never have imagined how big a part of our life she would become.  Just in 2017 alone, we have had celebratory dinners for mine, Andrea’s and Becky’s birthday with our families. We spent Thanksgiving with the Maguire family and friends. If there is even a major storm in the area, guess whose basement we have an open invite to use?

Andrea and her husband Martin are just big, warmhearted people. They work well off each other. They have raised kids who are free to be themselves, able to speak their mind and kids who know they are loved.  Becky and I hope to replicate some of these traits. They are selfless and always willing to lend a hand. They had our kids for one of our few overnight getaways we’ve taken and it’s probably the most comfortable we’ve ever felt because we knew they were in good hands (even after we had a stupid car break-in that blew up our plans for the day and caused a lot of unnecessary stress but enough of that nonsense). The kids have gone to church with them and Emerson will even let Andrea do her hair (a BIG deal). Lincoln Maguire, anyone? I chuckle sometimes when I think of our multiracial children just “showing up” with them at church one day 🙂

All that to say….Andrea is just a special, special person. Andrea truly loves our kiddos and they adore her in return. She’s one in a million and we are so fortunate to have her and the entire Maguire family in our lives. When we visit their house, it’s not like going to a friend’s. It’s like being home.

 

(And Martin is pretty cool too)