Ode to Lelynn

My great uncle Lelynn, who was just two months from being 99 years old, passed away last week. He was such an incredible man. He was very intelligent, kind, and humble. I loved going to visit him and just listening. He could remember any part of his life with great detail. He would tell stories of he and my grandma when they were small children. Those were my favorite stories. I especially like the one about he and grandma pretending to have a circus in their backyard. They used earthworms for a snake show in the circus! My grandma loved snakes her whole life so it was no surprise that a snake show was on the top of her priority list for the circus. Lelynn was also a WWII vet. He was a medic. He won the bronze star for bravery in rescuing his fellow soldiers. When asked to tell the story of how he got the bronze star he would just reply, "Oh, I don't even know." He never wanted to brag.

When I was a little girl we would go to visit him and he would get out his puppet, Pepper. He would write letters to me with all of the words going around in a spiral or he would write them from Pepper.

As I got older I learned to appreciate his love of geneology. He has traced our family's history back to the 1600's! I could sit for hours and listen to him tell about our family's roots. I think part of my love for scrapbooking must have come from this trait of his. I want to continue to tell the stories of my family's history.

I will miss him greatly.These images are from his 98th birthday party last year. We all went down to Red Wing and surprised him. I saw him one more time after this - it was after the fall that would take his life. He had fallen and broken his hip and shoulder. He was in the nursing home and had developed pneumonia and pulmonary emboli. He was having a very difficult time breathing and it was hard for him to talk. I want to remember him like he was at this birthday party. He told me before I left the party that he would like to have birthdays more often if they were like this one. That warmed my heart.

This is how I will always think of Lelynn. Sitting in his chair and captivating the entire crowd with his incredible stories. Never forgetting a detail.
God Bless You Uncle Lelynn.

This one's for you Karen!!! ;)

Wow! Bad blogger!!! It was a crazy summer. Lots of shifts at the hospital, softball games, soccer games, football practice, swimming (lots of swimming - I got a little tan, first time in my life!) and running kids here and there. We didn't even go any where this summer. We usually make at least a trip to Iowa, but I never packed a suitcase once. We spent a bunch of time with the Hoffmans - it was awesome! I didn't even scrap that much. But kids are back in school and I am hoping life gets into more of a routine.

So, here are my monthly assignments for Melissa Frances. It felt great to sit down at my desk and just scrapbook!

A Reason to Celebrate!

The entire Melissa Frances design team wanted to make Melissa's last day of cancer treatment special so we all did a little project for her. Congratulations Melissa!!!

They are posted on the Melissa Frances blog:

http://melissafrances.typepad.com/my_weblog/

Be sure to go check out all of the girls work. There are some amazing projects on there!

Here is mine:

Pictures from the last day

All of the moms! I should have cropped this one!

Kendall and Mr. Eerdmans

Brennan and Mr. Rose and Ms. Heilman

Do you think she's ever had her photo taken before???

Vicki

I've Been Here!

I've Been Here

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

This was so fun to do! I didn't realize that I've been so many places! I need to visit the rest of the states some time.

Vicki

Last Day of School - Finally!

That two full weeks of Christmas break sure got us at the end of the year this year! My kids last day of school was today! These last couple of weeks were so long. They were so ready to be done!
It was a great day today. I drove the kids in today because Brennan's egg launch was first thing this morning. His eggstronaught didn't fair very well. It flew really far, but ended up scrambled. He was a little disappointed since he had worked hard on his conceptual model and tested everything out beforehand.
Next was Kendall's graduation ceremony in Mr. E's class. I was worried about waterworks during this one after Brennan's third grade graduation. But I did great today. I got a little teary as Mr. E was giving the kids his speech about stopping by next year and staying friends. I feel so blessed and grateful that Kendall was able to even have him as a teacher at all that I feel very much at peace and very happy. It all feels complete now - all three of my kids had the most influential man I know as a teacher. He has certainly made a profound impact on our family's life.
After that it was on to Brennan's graduation party. The last day of elementary school! Again I thought I would cry, but did great! He had such a great year, that I can feel nothing but gratitude. All of my mom friends were there with me - Cindy S., Cindy D., Anne, and Joye. Kim and Bruce were the dad reps. We've all been together since second grade. What a great group of people. Bill was in Chicago for business, he was so dissappointed to have to miss it. I took lots of photos though. I'll post some tomorrow. As the kids got their diplomas they each were able to give a short speech. Brennan's was wonderful. Very mature. Most of the kids thanked the teachers and said that fifth grade was their best year. Some others were weird and cryptic but most were positive.
I thanked Mr. Carlson on the way out. He is the principal and is an incredible leader. We have been so thrilled with this school. I am so glad we have a few more years before we are done there. Both Cindy's are done! I said they should come back and share their extraordinary party planning skills with us next year!
I am ready for summer. It's time for some relaxed unstructured time off.
We just picked up Bill from the airport and I am ready to fall into bed!
thanks!
Vicki

Productive weekend!

So, for Memorial Day weekend we stayed at home. We had two lists - fun stuff and projects. For every fun thing we did we had to balance that out with a project. I think the weekend went swimmingly well!

The boys fished all day on Saturday and then we cleaned the garage! First time I've had a car in my garage in 2 1/2 YEARS! I cannot even express how excited I am!

We also got Bill's shed (a.k.a. "The Man Cave") cleaned out and organized. I didn't know there was so much room in there!

The other highlight of the weekend was Miss K learning how to ride her bike! She did great!

I am so proud of her!